Let There Be Light
by Florencia7
Summary: Post-6x22. It's been five years of living in dreams, but when even dreams are in danger of disappearing forever, it's time to start fighting for reality to come back. Damon/Elena and the Ensemble.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Happy June Everyone! :)

I actually wrote a very long A/N for this story right after watching the finale, but it's been a month and now I don't feel the need to rant anymore lol Having said that, I owe you a fair warning that I won't be watching S7, so this is going to be my last post-finale TVD fic :]

Also, RL is being very busy right now, so please bear with me because updates may be slow ;)

 **Summary:** Post-6x22. It's been five years of living in dreams, but when even dreams are in danger of disappearing forever, it's time to start fighting for reality to come back. Damon/Elena and the Ensemble.

 **Disclaimer:** _The Vampire Diaries_ belongs to L.J. Smith  & CW. The credit for the title goes to... _The Bible_ (obviously ^^) and to the song "Sun" by Sleeping At Last.

 **Let There Be Light**

 **Chapter 1**

It was like an immense coloring book with countless empty shapes that needed to be filled with colors, with memories of stars, roads, days and nights.

Memories of life.

"Can I open my eyes now?" Elena asked, stifling a laugh but then freezing for a second when she felt Damon's hand shudder on top of hers.

She opened her mouth to say something else to distract them both from being reminded-

As if it was possible not to be reminded, she thought with an inward grimace, squeezing her eyes shut tighter.

"Yes," Damon whispered into her ear, his voice dispersing the darkness, stopping Elena in her thoughts.

She tilted her head to the side to inhale the scent of his skin, even though she wasn't sure how much of it was just her imagination feeding off her memories, conjuring it all up to make it possible for her to keep holding on.

Damon pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth and she thought, with a twinge of pain, that perhaps it was all real, in a way, if the tone of his voice was any indication.

This tone that now always carried that perpetual hint of sadness that felt so excruciatingly unfamiliar, because there was nothing she could do to erase it.

Drawing a sharp breath, Elena opened her eyes and the tears she didn't manage to blink back quickly rolled down her face, landing on their intertwined hands like hot embers of coal, like snowflakes.

"That's beautiful," she said, choking a little, despite trying to concentrate only on the sight, on the view in front of her, on that real shred of this imaginary reality that could make her feel, during those always too brief moments of Damon's daily visits, like everything around her was real...

Like she was real...

"You _are_ real, Elena." Damon's voice steadied her and she mustered a smile. "We _are_ real," he whispered and she wanted to playfully chastise him for reading her thoughts, but amusement couldn't quite break through the overpowering grimness that was pulsating in her head like an endlessly ticking clock that never struck any hours.

They were standing in a bright room furnished with sand-colored furniture, decorated with countless pictures, their favorite memories locked in frames, light, lacy curtains billowing in the summer breeze and the window sills...

The entire house was filled with window sills and she marveled sometimes how it was possible that this place got engraved in her mind so well that now she barely had to make any effort to see it.

They built this house together, furnished it to the smallest detail. She knew every trinket, the color of every piece of fabric by heart and it was so hard to believe it was just an imaginary house made out of dreams.

They were standing in front of an open window, the sunlight flooding in, the sea outside looking as deeply turquoise as it did in her favorite painting.

"Hey, stop adding things! Today is my day," Damon said in mockingly scolding voice when a boat appeared on the horizon.

"Oh yeah?" Elena leaned her head against his shoulder. "What about adding pyramids to my trip to Paris?"

Smirking, Damon lowered his mouth to her neck. "I was just being practical. That way we could spend an entire day in France _and_ in Egypt. Simultaneously!"

Elena smiled and then turned around in Damon's arms that instinctively closed around her. If it wasn't all a dream she was sure there would be bruises, visible ones instead of all those invisible, bleeding scars that were covering their hearts. She gritted her teeth.

It was so, so strange, getting used to the reality that could only exist as a dream.

Elena closed her eyes for a second and when she opened them again they were on a beach in front of the house and she could feel the warmth of the sand under her bare feet.

"Since you put the boat in there already," Damon said, trailing kissed across her lips and waiting for her eyes to brighten a little.

She raised her hands to touch his face and they were standing for a few moments in silence before Damon grasped her hand in his, pulling her into the water, heading toward a small, white, wooden boat. After a few steps he swept her into his arms and carried her across the waves, holding her gaze all the while.

The water made no sound as they were walking in it, not a splash could be heard, but there was one sound that reverberated in her ears: his heartbeat.

" _Be human with me."_

His heartbeat that always reminded her that one day she would be free of this non-existent place, able to return to the world so they could pick up where they had left off.

" _I'm taking it."_

Elena's hand closed around Damon's, almost crushing it and yet... everything here felt like she couldn't quite reach it, not completely, not fully. There always seemed to be some kind of a volatile, paper-thin barrier between her and everything she was looking at, listening to, trying to feel...

"A transparent boat would be so much better," Elena suggested, tucking her hair behind her ears.

"Would it?" Damon asked, squinting and Elena smiled when a moment later she could see the green algae on the sea bed underneath the boat.

She looked up and when her eyes met his, for a few fleeting moments, everything was real.

If she didn't focus well enough, the water surface looked like a painted layer of matte paper, the sun was cold, the sea silent and she couldn't feel the texture of anything under her fingertips but his eyes, his eyes were always real. His gaze always reminded her about the reality that was awaiting her at the end of this dream.

"So how was your day?" Elena asked, resting her head on Damon's shoulder when he pulled her into his arms, the boat beginning to rock with a delay, as if someone painted it still, but then changed his mind and made it a moving picture instead. Her own question reminded her of something, but she pushed the thought, heavy with grief and fear away.

"I made chili for Mayor Forbes' charity ball," Damon muttered, his nose buried in Elena's hair. "It was a success." Elena raised her eyebrows. "The ball, not the chili," he added with feigned reluctance and Elena chuckled. "In my defense, I used your old family recipe."

Elena lifted her head, shooting him him an amused, narrow-eyes look. "Did Jeremy send some drawings in?" She asked playing with the lapels of Damon's shirt.

"Yeah, about that. I think he dropped out of college without telling anyone."

Elena tilted her head upwards. "Why would you think that?" She asked with a small frown, worried.

"It's been five years and he's yet to ask for a graduation present, so the only logical explanation is that he didn't graduate."

Elena sighed. "You should probably ask him about it."

Damon kissed the top of her head. "I'm not going to ask him. I'm going to ambush him. He's coming home next weekend and when he leaves I'm going to follow him and see what he's up to."

Elena's fingers clutched the fabric of his shirt tighter. _Home._

"That's a good plan," she said, nestling her face in Damon's neck.

"But I'll be back within a day," Damon added matter-of-factly and Elena felt a twinge of cold pierce through her as if she suddenly saw in broad daylight something that was lingering in the shadows up till then.

Sometimes, when she was able not to think about the present as much as about the happy things to come, coming up with different settings, different ideas for their imaginary days was fun. But even on such days, she still liked it even more when it was Damon's turn, because then she could feel the wind in her hair without willing herself to feel it. She could feel the sun rays on her face without deliberately planning on it. She could be caught off guard by his hand skimming across her skin without preparing herself to feel it.

It hadn't bothered her at first. At the beginning, she'd had enough energy to breathe the semblance of life into everything around her. She was trying to create the world from a scratch and live in it, but with every passing day the emptiness surrounding her would claw its way back, bit by bit, tearing down all the imaginary embellishments, making her see through the make-believe until she wasn't able to believe in anything... as long as she was alone.

She wondered if Damon knew... and she half-hoped he didn't, but it seemed very unlikely considering that she suspected he was doing something very similar. It was a secret they shared without speaking of it. It was the one secret they kept from each other.

Although perhaps it could hardly count as such if it was the same secret.

When he'd leave her consciousness and she'd leave his, Elena wouldn't stay in their apartment above a bar in New York, or in the beach house, or in a rain forest. She wouldn't continue skiing down a mountain or flying over the Grand Canyon. She wouldn't remain under a stash of blankets in front of the fireplace reading her favorite books.

Instead, she would just turn off the lights in her head and wait, wait in silence, in complete darkness, until the next time she would see him.

Because when they were together this world was a dream they were dreaming together. But when she was here alone, it was nothing more than a ruse, a lie she didn't want.

"Damon..." Elena wasn't even sure she spoke his name out loud, but when she felt his cheek lift off her head she knew he was looking at her and she gathered all her courage to continue.

" _And it's because I love you that I can't be selfish with you."_

Her world wasn't real and it wasn't going to be real for quite some time yet. But his world was real. His world could be, should be real.

"This is wrong," Elena whispered, shivering at the sound of her own voice, strikingly loud in perfect silence that made her realize that her words distracted Damon from paying attention to keeping all the audiovisual details under control.

But he was on alert at once. "What do you mean, Elena?" He asked, his hold on her tightening.

Elena straightened up, slowly turning around in his arms and anchoring her hands on his shoulders. She tilted her head to the side, trying not to cry but somehow the tears unlike fake shooting stars and imaginary snow storms wouldn't listen to her.

"I told you to live your life, but I'm keeping you here instead," she whispered, her voice quivering. "And the worst part is, I know it's selfish. But I just can't help it."

"Elena," Damon interrupted her, his hands flying to her face to cup her cheeks. "I want to be here. It's my choice. There's no other place I'd rather be."

"I know," Elena said with a heartwrenchingly sad smile. "But here's the thing, Damon. This is not a place." Elena brushed the backs of her fingers across his face. "This place doesn't exists. This is not real," she said under her breath.

"Yes, it is," Damon said tonelessly, with determination that send shivers up her spine.

" _I had so much fantasy in my life, Elena..."_

"Damon-"

"Elena. This place isn't real, but that's not the point." Damon glanced around with a frown and Elena drew a breath when the sea suddenly disappeared and they found themselves in the boarding house. "The point is us. We are real. No matter where we are."

" _...Enough for a hundred lifetimes..."_

"I know," Elena said feverishly, grasping his hands in hers and for a moment she wondered if either of them needed to actively imagine feeling each other's touch or perhaps the sensation was stronger than anything else and no magical barrier could stop them from feeling it anyway. "And one day we'll be together in the real world. But until then... I can't keep you trapped for half a century in the world that doesn't exist."

" _...I'd give it all up for one life with you..."_

"Says the girl who was drugging herself to hallucinate her dead boyfriend," Damon said, squinting, trying to smirk, but only the underlying fear reached his eyes.

" _...I'm ready for a little reality if you are."_

Elena smiled brokenly. "That's why I know that hanging out with each other in our thoughts is not the right way to do this."

"There is no right way to do this, Elena," Damon said fervently. "But that's the only way."

Slowly, without breaking the eye contact with him, Elena freed one of her hands from his grasp and lifted it, brushing a strand of hair off his forehead.

"There's so much more you can do and see and feel-"

"Elena, stop it," Damon said warningly with a frustrated frown, trying to capture her hand, but his eyes widened when his hand went right through hers.

"See? I'm a ghost," Elena whispered in such a tearful but calm voice that it caused Damon's heart to clench so painfully he didn't think he'd be able to take another breath.

"No, you're not." He almost shouted, stopping himself short from saying _"don't do this to me,"_ because he felt the callback would only make things worse. "I don't want to live without you," he added in a lower voice that ripped through her like the warmest, most hurtful ray of light.

"I don't want to live without you either," Elena said, her voice faltering enough to renew Damon's hope that he'd be able to steer her away from the awful idea.

"Elena. Today is my day, so stop it," he said earnestly, his heart hammering in his chest and he couldn't decide if it was still from fear or perhaps from joy that he was succeeding in convincing her that quitting their imaginary encounters was not a solution.

Elena looked at him, stared at him for a longer while and he couldn't decipher what she was doing until she leaned in and kissed him.

"That's exactly what I'm going to do," she whispered against his lips, some of her tears dropping onto his face. "I love you. Be happy. I will see you soon."

Damon's arms locked around her, but before he had a chance to utter another word, Elena disappeared along with everything else surrounding them and within a split second Damon found himself in the Salvatore crypt, leaning over the coffin with Elena's motionless hand warm in his.

A gust of wind doused the candles and Elena's face faded into the shadows, leaving Damon in complete darkness, his voice growing hoarse from calling out her name over and over again.

xxxdelenaxxx

Bonnie turned the last page of the grimoire and even though there was nothing else written there, she kept staring at the yellowed paper for a longer while, her fingernails digging into the leather cover until she closed the book shut and shoved it into the fireplace with a stifled scream.

"On the bright side, Damon didn't kill you."

Bonnie turned around, so irritated she couldn't even find it in herself to be surprised by the visit.

Enzo narrowed his eyes at her and smirked fleetingly. "Yet."

"I think you should rather worry about yourself. What happened to Elena is his mother's fault and the last I heard you were Lily's favorite fake son replacement."

Enzo gave her an amused look.

"Get the hell out of here. I'm not in the mood of having pointless conversations with people I don't give a damn about," Bonnie said impatiently.

"Oh, this is not going to be a pointless conversation at all," Enzo said with a slow smile, leaning against the wall and tapping a clock that was sitting on the shelf nearby. Bonnie's eyes flickered to it and then back to Enzo. "I see you're still searching for a spell to unlink yourself from Elena."

Straightening up, Bonnie crossed her arms over her chest. "And let me guess. You happen to be in the possession of some valuable information," she said with a sardonic grimace.

Enzo turned around from the bookshelves giving Bonnie a mock-offended look. "I see you underrate both my intelligence and my loyalty."

Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "Your loyalty? Really?"

"Well, I wouldn't expect you to understand. Iwould've asked the first vampire I'd run into to turn me," Enzo whispered in a humming voice, his eyes boring in hers.

These was a moment of silence.

"Elena wouldn't want that."

Enzo laughed derisively. "Just out of curiosity, how many times you had to tell yourself that to actually believe it?"

"You don't know anything about any of us!" Bonnie shouted, glaring at him. "You don't know me or Elena or even Damon."

Enzo grimaced. "You know, you should reconsider being all rude to me, because I actually came here to relieve you of your little to die or not to die dilemma."

Something in his gaze made Bonnie suddenly realize that he was up to something, so casting a vampire headache over him she headed for the door...

Only to realize that it didn't work.

xxxdelenaxxx

Glaring with his red-rimmed eyes at the heavy doors, Damon checked all the locks, including the ones spelled by Bonnie, three more times, before he turned around-

And caused the doors to rattle loudly when he fell against them with a groan.

"I came here to see if Caroline was right and it turns out she was," Stefan said, leaning against Damon's camaro, his arms crossed over his chest . "You _are_ the dumbest person anyone has ever met."

Damon clapped. "OK, so you've delivered your annual You're Doing It All Wrong, Damon lecture. Off you go," Damon said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"You know our mother and her... family are back in town and you're still coming here every day. Really? How long do you think it will take them to figure out why?"

Damon rolled his eyes and pushed himself away from the crypt, heading for his car.

"The point of putting Elena in there and having a dozen of cloaking spells placed over the crypt was to make her safe. You coming here every day makes her unsafe."

"Like you said, a dozen of cloaking spells is guarding this place, so."

"So what?" Stefan snapped. "It's not like they're keeping you locked out, which I guess makes Bonnie the world's second dumbest person. And In case you forgot, Lily's friends are not just rippers but witches and there's no telling what the actual extent of their powers is. Do you really want to check if they are unable to break through all those cloaking spells?"

"Why would they do that anyway?" Damon asked impatiently, throwing his arms out and glaring at Stefan. "Do you think our mother's greatest desire is to become human again?"

Stefan averted his eyes from him, his expression suddenly turning utterly grim.

"Stefan?"

"I'm afraid the moment our mother realized we weren't going to help her break her friends free from that prison world she decided she would show us what it really meant to give someone an eternity of misery," Stefan said tonelessly, still not looking at Damon.

"What are you talking about?"

"Three hours ago Enzo turned Bonnie into a vampire," Stefan blurted out.

Damon blinked. "What?" he asked, looking around in bewilderment, trying to make sense of Stefan's words, confusion and anger clashing in his head and then rendering all of his thoughts silent. "Three hours ago," he repeated, his eyes drawn to the crypt looming in the night. "But-"

"He wanted to, I don't know, 'check' if what Lily had told him was true," Stefan said contemptuously, "that Kai didn't tie Elena's life to Bonnie's. It was just a lie meant to make it all even more cruel, eventually."

Damon's eyes flew to Stefan and the expression on Stefan's face made his blood run cold.

All the questions he could think of were flashing in his eyes but he wasn't able to voice any of them, a dreary, ominous feeling spreading through his chest.

Stefan looked at Damon half-hoping that he'd guess the rest, so he wouldn't need to be the one to tell him.

But Damon was looking at him as if he was able to understand anything but this and so it had to be said out loud because he'd never believe it otherwise.

Stefan took a breath even though he doubted there was enough air in the world to make it possible to say the words without choking on every horrible syllable.

Damon looked at him, looked at him without blinking and Stefan felt his eyes burn.

How strange, Stefan thought numbly, his fingers drumming the air, that killing hope felt so similar to killing people.

"He tied Elena's life to yours. Elena will wake up... when you die."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N:I'm so happy and amazed to see so many old and new friends here this year! :):):) Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews!:]

 **Chapter 2**

The door bell made Bonnie groan under her breath and bury her face in the pillow even more. She wondered just how many more times she'd have to explain to _everyone_ that she was feeling more angry than sad and that she was... if not fine then at least _dealing_ and in need of a few hours alone with her thoughts rather than incessant visits and phone calls.

Unfortunately, the bell continued ringing, the sound echoing through her grandmother's house and Bonnie knew there was no choice but to answer the door before Caroline would walk right through the wall.

Sliding her feet into the slippers, Bonnie dragged herself to the door.

"Blueberries or... organic blueberries?" Damon raised both of his hands to showcase a small box in each of them.

"I thought you were Caroline," Bonnie said with a sigh.

"Is that disappointment or relief?"

"It's general resignation," Bonnie muttered, letting Damon in and following him to the kitchen, watching him busy himself with assembling ingredients for pancakes.

"Don't you have more important things to do today?" She asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at him.

She doubted either of them could be of much help to the other right now, seeing how yesterday both of their worlds burned, crashed, collapsed and turned into ashes.

Then again, maybe that's exactly why it was a good idea for them to talk.

"Nah, why?" Damon asked with a shrug. "I'll just need half an hour during the day to plan my funeral, most importantly choose the music to at least make sure that Stefan's conscience will be haunting him forever even if he decides to go with a Bon Jovi song anyway. Other than that I'm good. Would you mind washing the blueberries?"

Damon extended his hand holding the boxes in it, but since nothing was happening, he shifted his eyes to Bonnie.

"Nothing has changed. You know that, right?" Bonnie said firmly, ignoring the request. "Damon," she said impatiently when Damon's only response was proceeding to washing the blueberries himself. "We're just going to keep looking for that spell. Nothing has changed."

Damon turned to face her. "Something has. You are not a witch anymore."

"Yeah, well, that's irrelevant as far the spell is concerned," Bonnie said defiantly, trying to ignore the almost physical pain at the recurring realization that it was really true. "Unless you mean that I won't be able to perform it, which is... well, true, probably, although I'd say that's a minor detail. I'm sure once we have the spell we can find someone who could help us. My mother knows quite a number of people-"

"You really are not well, are you?" Damon squinted, tilting his head to the side. "You are a vampire, Bonnie," Damon interrupted her, his voice bordering on harsh and Bonnie wasn't sure if he was behaving that way out of concern or in retaliation for her pouring salt in an open wound and bringing up the spell. Probably both.

"I'm aware," she said dryly. "Are you going somewhere with this?"

"You seem like you're in denial about it."

"I'm not denial," Bonnie said stiffly. "Caroline has already hammered all the gory technicalities into my head, so I had no time to even contemplate being in denial. And you know what I'm actually most upset about?" She continued after the pause, her voice quivering minimally but enough for Damon to forget about the blueberries and just listen to her. "That it really isn't that bad," Bonnie said with a sardonic sneer. "I mean, it's horrible, but it's not like I'm _gone_ and you know what is actually more horrible? That he was right. Enzo," she clarified when Damon gave her a questioning look. "When he said I was a horrible friend."

"Bonnie-"

"No, don't interrupt me now. It doesn't matter anymore anyway." She grimaced. "What I want to say," Bonnie took a deep breath and signaling for Damon to _really_ let her finish she added, "I'm not in denial about being a vampire. I'm just over it. OK? I don't want to talk about it right now. Caroline won't let me not to, but I hope you will." She waited for Damon to nod. "Great. Thanks. Now. What does Elena think about your funeral program?"

Damon's mouth twitched. He turned away from Bonnie and reached for the pans. "Round pancakes or square pancakes?" Bonnie just looked at him. "Regretfully, I can't tell Elena about the riveting Shakespearean twist on our story because she's chosen this particular moment to stop seeing me."

"If you were being that annoying I can't say I blame her," Bonnie said, hoping to change the mood of the conversation, but she quickly realized it wasn't possible, because when Damon spoke again his voice was brimming with disheartenment and sadness more acute than she had ever heard in his tone before.

"We've been looking for the right awakening-unlinking spell for five years. We've tried everything, talked to everyone, including undead spirits of dead angry witches, alive but equally angry Sabrinas, long-unseen members of the Bennett family and estranged crazed siblings of our former mortal enemies. What if the spell we need doesn't exist? The sooner I die the better, because if I die now, then at least Elena will have a chance to spend her life with the people she loves instead of their grandchildren who will wonder who is that freaky lady that looks twenty but says she went to preschool with their grandparents."

A door bell interrupted them before Bonnie had a chance to respond.

xxxdelenaxxx

With a sigh, Caroline turned off the engine and shifted her eyes to Stefan. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

She shot a glare at the white-washed building nearby, half-hoping that she could glare it into oblivion. Or at least its inhabitants into harmlessness.

"This morning I walked in on my brother whittling a stake for himself." Stefan smiled sourly, his eyes sad. "Yeah, I'm sure I want to do this," he added under his breath, pushing the car door open.

"It's a good sign, you know," Caroline said, giving Stefan a gently reassuring smile when he looked at her. "That he's doing it all in the open. It means that he still has hope."

"Yes, but he _is_ losing it and the moment he loses it completely-" Stefan cut himself off mid-sentence and then gave Caroline a parting nod before getting out of the car.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I can tell you where I bought these unless that's not why you're staring," Enzo said, pushing the sunglasses off his eyes, looking between Damon and Bonnie.

"How dare-" Bonnie started vehemently, quickly shaking herself our of shock caused by seeing Enzo at her doorstep mere hours after he had _killed_ her.

But before she managed to complete her sentence, Damon punched Enzo in the face so hard she was surprised he still had all of his teeth when he got up from the ground.

"Right," Enzo said, unfazed, inspecting his sunglasses after picking them from the grass where they had fallen off. "Now that we have that over with. I thought I'd stop by and let you say 'thank you'."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Damon asked sternly while Bonnie hesitated between asking just that and shutting the door in his face.

"Lily wants the cure and don't ask me why because I don't know," Enzo said, his voice losing its usual edge to some kind of sincerity Bonnie wasn't sure they should trust anyway. "They wanted to break into the crypt, but your spells proved pretty strong, so they wanted to do a spell that would override the spells that were put over the crypt and in order to do that they needed the blood of the witch who cast them. How inconvenient that you're not a witch anymore, eh?"

"And all of a sudden you'd risk thwarting the plans of your _family_ to protect a girl you barely know?" Bonnie asked, glancing at Damon whose eyes were fixed on Enzo whether because he believed his every word or exactly the opposite Bonnie couldn't tell.

Enzo snorted half-heartedly. "You know that sentence could be easily rephrased to actually sound logical, but I'm going to skip it because I'm short on time here." He paused. "Meet me tomorrow evening on the Wickery Bridge. At 9," he said before turning around and heading for his car.

"Do you think he's telling the truth? Why would he be helping us?" Bonnie asked, watching Enzo's car disappear around the corner.

Damon was silent for a longer while, but when he spoke at last his voice was low, more than a hint of anxiety in it. "Elena's not safe in there."

"He doesn't seem to know the blood of three different witches was used to spell the crypt," Bonnie argued.

"But they will figure it out when they see that your death didn't undo your spells," Damon said with a frown. "They want the cure and they know about the crypt, so it isn't a safe place anymore." He paused and then added, shifting his eyes to Bonnie. "I'm taking Elena home."

xxxdelenaxxx

Stefan stared at the tea cup in front of him wondering if it was only an impression that the cup looked so much like the one he remembered from his childhood. A set of twelve. Four fell victim to their father's rage, two to Damon's and his shenanigans, one to a guest's carelessness...

"I wasn't expecting you," Lily said, slowly taking her place opposite of Stefan who looked up at her, feeling a twinge of pain at the realization that his mother's tone of voice and fluid motions that he had always found enchanting as a child were now terrifying, like a deceitful calm before an inevitable storm.

"I was expecting to hear that," he retorted with a stiff smile, shaking off the remnants of memories, trying to focus on the task at hand, trying to read her without letting her read him. "Why did you do it?"

Lily slowly raised her eyebrows. "I don't understand."

"Why did you let Kai link them?"

Lily ran her fingers over the rim of the cup before straightening up with a theatrically stunned expression on her face. "I thought he'd at least wait a few days, but I see that despite keeping his distance for five years Lorenzo ran to your brother with this piece of news as soon as he learned it."

"Well, he did a little bit more than that," Stefan said with a frown. "He killed Bonnie." Lily's expression was blank and Stefan snorted bitterly at himself for expecting a reaction. "Obviously insipid details aside, I came here to ask you to unlink Damon and Elena. Your and your friends must know the right spell."

Lily shrugged in surprise that Stefan wasn't sure was entirely feigned. "Why didn't you come here five years ago?"

"Five years ago we thought it was all on Kai and only now we discovered it was all on you. So as it's usually the case, the one who concocted the poison probably knows how to make the cure."

"The cure," Lily echoed, tilting her head to the side and narrowing her eyes at Stefan. "Now that you mentioned it... Maybe I could find someone who knows the spell you're looking for in exchange for it."

"For what?" Stefan asked sharply enough for Lily to just give him a faded smile and wait for an answer.

"The obvious absurdity of you expecting anyone to willingly assist you in bringing your friends into this world aside," Stefan said after a pause, "it wasn't up to Damon or me to decide whether that would work out, because we couldn't perform the spell, so I find it unjust and bizarre that you'd be punishing us for it, punishing Damon who went back for you, got you out of your prison world in the first place."

"Your brother went to my prison world so he could trap Kai in there."

"That was a convenient side effect," Stefan replied, holding her gaze.

"So is my request," Lily said in that voice she was using ever since her return that only now Stefan realized why it sounded so unsettling. It was because it sounded insincere and he couldn't tell when if at all she was telling the truth.

"Why would you want the cure? Do you want to be human again?"

"You're stalling."

There was such detached iciness to Lily's eyes that Stefan began to wonder if it was a good idea to come here at all.

"You know I can't do that," he said so quietly that Lily leaned forward as if to show that she had troubles hearing him. "I can't promise you the cure. That's not my decision to make."

"That's too bad, then, I guess?" Lily said with a small shrug, her eyes searching Stefan's face and he straightened up, thinking that if she was trying to read him he still had a chance to surprise her, catch her off guard, somehow.

"I could agree to your offer," Stefan spoke in a low, steady voice, his eyes boring into hers. "Say that you could have Elena's blood and then as soon as I'd walk out of here start plotting a way for you not to get it, after all, but I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm going to ask you to help us wake Elena up without striking any deals at all."

Lily's eyes narrowed a little and Stefan wasn't sure if utter confusion on her face was a good or a bad sign.

"You blame Damon for lying to you. But he was only trying to protect the people he loves. He hasn't done many things in his life that haven't been done out of love. Surely you can understand that."

"And why would I understand that?"

"Because you are the one who taught us that," Stefan said with a sad smile. Lily's mouth twitched. "We were getting lost in the infinity of ways over the centuries, but several years ago someone helped us find our way back to each other and back to being ourselves, the people you had raised, the people who were always trying to do the right thing, be brave, protect and never give up on those they loved, never give up on anyone. That's how I know that this is who you still are too. And that's why I'm asking you for an act of kindness toward a person who saved the people you once loved."

xxxdelenaxxx

It took Elena an enormous amount of self-control not to let Damon in when she felt a tingling sensation on her hand.

"Elena..."

She kept her eyes firmly closed. She knew he'd come. She was preparing herself for him to try, over and over again, to make her change her mind, so she wasn't surprised and yet it felt like the mere thought was impossible to resist.

"Elena, please talk to me. There's something important I have to tell you."

Careful not to open up her mind, Elena opened her eyes, rather certain he was just making that 'something important' up, but regardless of that her resolve to keep silent made her heart clench.

"Fine. Don't let me in, but just so you know, I'm not going to stop coming here, so if you want to embarrass me by making me deliver soliloquies on a daily basis, be my guest."

Elena drew up her legs and propped her chin on her knees. There was something off about the humor in Damon's voice. It was laced with exhaustion, with resignation that could probably be easily filed away as having everything to do with the situation they were in, however, Elena couldn't shake off the impression that something was really wrong.

"Elena..." Damon's tone shifted again and now it was gentle and pleading and Elena's hands curled up into fists as she tried to fight the urge to let him in and throw her imaginary arms over the imaginary him...

So many years were yet to pass before she could do that in the real world, but she would wait. Squeezing her eyes shut Elena felt tears escape from under her eyelids and rush down her face. If she caved in now she knew she wouldn't have the strength to do it again. And it had to be done. She had to set him free. He couldn't spend almost a century just waiting for her. He couldn't be spending half of his life in the world that only existed in her head. It wasn't right. And she knew if the situation was reversed, he would've set her free.

"Just one more time. Just one more day. Talk to me for the last time, please. Elena." Damon paused. "I promise it will be the last."

The word 'promise' in this context made Elena shudder and she froze, waiting for him to continue. If he had used a different word she would've thought he was just trying to persuade her to let him in, but he'd never broken a promise and it seemed odd that he'd really so promptly agree to talk to her for one last time.

Suddenly, she could feel the darkness around her move away, as if someone tossed some heavy, impenetrable curtains to the sides.

Elena's eyes snapped open and she blinked in surprise at the sight of a movie screen in front of her.

"Refusing to let me see you is not going to change anything, Elena," Damon's voice drifted to her from everywhere at once, wrapping itself around her like a warm blanket. "Wherever I'm going to be... always... all I'm going to think about is you."

The blackness dispersed and Elena saw the screen flicker to reveal images, her own memories playing out in front of her in muted colors, like an old, silent movie, with grungy straps appearing in between the shots. Their first meeting, The Miss Mystic Falls dance, the first _I love you_ , their first kiss...

Elena covered her mouth with her hand to stifle a cry when the pale blue rain started pouring over the screen, over them.

 _"Wait. It'll clear up."_

Then her mad dash through the forest.

" _I felt so safe."_

She held her breath when on the movie screen Elena fell into Damon's arms, but the image that immediately followed was the moment when she opened her eyes a few days later, his eyes her anchor in the reality, as they had always been, she realized with a broken smile.

The movie went on and she watched it greedily, already feeling sad that it'd soon come to an end, but to her surprise the story of this Elena didn't end with a shot of the girl in a coffin. Instead, it went on.

A sob escaped her, the sound drowned by her heart hammering in her chest and Elena tried to blink back the tears as fast as she could in order not to miss any second of the story unfolding in front of her.

Scrambling to her feet she started walking toward the screen without taking her eyes off it.

There was a wedding, white balloons strapped to a car...

And she was too enthralled by the story not to notice that it wasn't a camaro until she subconsciously made it a camaro...

Elena held her face in her hands trying to stop the tears, holding her breath, but it worked out rather poorly, because when a hospital scene appeared on the screen she burst out crying. And laughing through her tears, watching herself hold a baby, Damon taking a picture of the three of them.

Then she was watching everyone she loved wearing silly hats and cheering for a toddler on the screen to make a wish and blow the candles. A myriad of moments happening next, year after year in flashes, until she could see, despite the sepia tones, gray strands of hair on her and Damon's heads as they were driving into the horizon in a car that looked so much younger than them and yet she couldn't take her eyes off the smiles on their faces, as if they had all the time in the world even as they were headed toward the end of their human existence, holding each other's hands, like that night when they had driven their car into the flames to save their town.

"You'll be very happy, Elena."

The screen turned white.

Damon let go of Elena's hand, pressed a kiss to her forehead and gathered her into his arms.

Inside her mind, her arms wrapped around herself, Elena was looking at the screen and wondering whether something happened or perhaps Damon intended for the movie to end that way. A little abruptly. And why did he say that she'd be happy? _They_ were going to be happy. The movie was about them, about their future together, a few decades from now. She mustered a smile. Just few decades. It wasn't all that long, really. She could wait for that long. Their future was worth waiting for.

A strange sound shook Elena out of her reverie and she shivered, suddenly feeling cold. She couldn't remember ever feeling cold here, simply because she never wanted to feel cold.

Turning her head in every direction, Elena tried to locate the source of the crunching sound. She was sure she wasn't imagining it and Damon certainly wouldn't be be making her hear scary noises in the dark.

"It would've been way better with music."

The voice chilled Elena to her bones and she froze, petrified from shock.

Her eyes flew to the movie screen that started darkening and melting, black, thick drops of tar falling onto the ground.

Elena didn't move, hoping that if she remained still, maybe the bizarre hallucination she didn't will into existence would disappear on its own.

But then suddenly an empty movie screen appeared and a dark shadow walked in front of it, lights from behind the screen illuminating him and it was clear that somehow he was controlling it.

Which wasn't possible, Elena thought frantically. It was all happening in _her_ head. It wasn't possible for someone to get in here, to be here unless she'd let the person in.

But her train of thought was interrupted by the sight that knocked the air out of her lungs.

Kai snickered, popping another piece of popcorn into his mouth. "Hi there. I thought that after sneaking around for so long I should come to say hello."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you so much for all the fantastic reviews! :)

Witty A/Ns are not my forte, so I think I'm just going to leave you with the cliffhanger lol

 **Chapter 3**

The sky was colorless, an almost transparent shade of blue and Jeremy caught himself thinking he had never seen anything like it, in any other place he had been to in the last five years.

Which probably wasn't true, he thought with a faint smile, searching for the keys. But the fact that he was seeing it that way probably meant that he still considered this town home, because home was always the most beautiful place, no matter how far away from it he'd wander, no matter how little was really left of it.

"Shouldn't we knock?" The dark-haired girl next to Jeremy asked when he produced the keys out of his pocket and proceeded to opening the door.

"It's 5am," Jeremy said with a small, mischievous smile.

The door opened with a quiet screech and the girl held her breath, outstretching her fingers when she noticed that her hands started automatically curling up into fists.

"Besides, that's what keys are for _and_ I do kind of live here," Jeremy added, walking in and waiting for the girl to follow him.

"While you're not hunting vampires," the girl pointed out in a hushed voice.

Jeremy widened his eyes at her. "While I'm on holiday breaks," he corrected, bringing a finger to his mouth in a silencing gesture, his eyes laughing.

"Right," the girl nodded, looking around the parlor, taking in all the details with a mixture of awe and repulsion. "So... if anyone asks, how have we met?" She asked, still keeping her voice quiet and wiggling her hand into Jeremy's, suddenly feeling uncertain if coming here was a good idea. She'd been thinking about it for so long, but now that she was here it felt... not even frightening, just _wrong_ , for very conflicting reasons. "I ran into you in a library or you into me in a cafeteria?"

"Chess club will do," Jeremy offered, smiling a little as he dropped their backpacks on the floor in the living room.

He took a look around, not sure if he found it comforting or depressing that nothing was ever changing here. Every time he'd come visit not a single thing would be out of order. Not that anyone probably cared about moving the furniture, what with Stefan going out of town very often and Damon-

Jeremy's eyes lingered on the pictures sitting on one of the cabinets, Elena's eyes so bright on each photograph.

" _I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry that you've lost so many people."_

It was so impossible to think that they might never see, never talk to each other again.

" _I still have you."_

"Go ahead and make yourself a coffee," Jeremy said absently, slowly walking away from the pictures. "I'll go upstairs to see who is home and will be right back."

"Is that your sister?" The girl asked, stepping closer to him and glancing at the photographs.

"Yeah," Jeremy nodded, his voice barely audible. He cleared his throat.

"You know you may still get to see her if you listen to me, quit eating junk food and other unhealthy habits and swim more," she said in a humorously severe voice and then smiled warmly at him.

"Right. I'm already looking forward to introducing my 21-year-old older sister to our grandchildren," Jeremy said, heading toward the stairway.

"Jeremy-" The girl started, noticing the lack of humor in his tone despite the intention to sound at least a little lighthearted.

"I'm fine," Jeremy said from the stairs, holding her gaze for a second, before turning around and climbing up the stairs.

Sarah looked after him, standing motionlessly for a longer while, the realization that she wouldn't be able to drag it out for longer than a few more minutes falling over her like a cold, sticky shadow and she just hoped that when she'd explain it all to him _afterwards_ , Jeremy would understand.

xxxdelenaxxx

Bonnie looked back and forth between Stefan and Caroline, giving both of them expectant looks, but it didn't seem like either of them was going to say anything more than what they had already said.

"Yes, he seriously just asked her to be nice," Caroline said brusquely, glancing at Stefan and then sitting back in her chair with a sigh.

"Oh. Sorry. I thought that was a... joke." Bonnie gave Stefan a quick, apologetic smile.

Stefan grimaced, stifling a humorless laugh. "It's not like I had a choice. If I told her that sure, she could have Elena's blood, she'd know right away I was lying. At least that way-"

"At least that way she knows you're an honest guy. I'm sure that if she wasn't a homicidal sociopath she'd appreciate that," Caroline interjected, her tone sour.

Stefan only sighed in resignation.

"Well, you never know," Bonnie said with a shrug. "Maybe it will work."

Caroline's glare shifted from Stefan to Bonnie. "Seriously?"

"I think we talked about my failed mission enough," Stefan interrupted. "You said Enzo was here?"

"He wants to meet me and Damon tonight on the Wickery Bridge," Bonnie replied blandly.

"What for?" Caroline demanded.

"Obviously if I knew why I would've told you," Bonnie retorted with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Caroline jumped to her feet and started pacing around the room. "How do we know he's not just doing Lily's bidding? This change of heart seems a little sudden after five years of being a very happy minion."

"You don't know that," Bonnie said before she managed to stop herself. Being more inclined to argue with Caroline was probably falling within the scope of her heightened emotions.

"Are you defending him?" Caroline asked incredulously, looking Bonnie up and down as if she was checking if she wasn't being possessed.

"I think Bonnie's just trying to say that we can't be sure what Enzo's reasons are," Stefan observed in a reconciliatory tone, which unfortunately seemed to actually aggravate Caroline more.

"I don't need a translation from English to English, Stefan," she snapped.

"Are you mad at me, Stefan, both of us, or just... generally mad?" Bonnie asked, thinking that being a vampire felt a little like being drunk all the time. Granted she never enjoyed being drunk, but speaking faster than she was able to think was kind of fun.

"I'm not mad at anyone!" Caroline exclaimed after a few moments of just blinking at both of them in indignation. "I'm just- I'm stressed out because I have a meeting with an investor. My first meeting as a mayor," she clarified when she noticed that Bonnie didn't seem immediately sympathetic to her ordeal.

"Elena's in danger, I'm a vampire and you're mad because you have a meeting," Bonnie said after a moment of silence, her voice calm but in a threatening way, so Stefan opened his mouth to intervene before the argument would get blown out of proportion-

But before he did, everyone's attention was drawn to the candles that suddenly lit up, not rendering the sunny room brighter, but definitely rendering everyone in it speechless.

Bonnie's eyes went wide.

"Um, weren't you supposed to _not_ be able to do that anymore?" Caroline asked cautiously and for the first time since yesterday Bonnie felt like smiling.

xxxdelenaxxx

The clock in the hallway struck 5am and Jeremy frowned, confused, irritated and yet fully aware that he had no reason and no right to be upset. In fact, he should probably try to understand. That's what Elena would want anyway.

Would she? Jeremy leaned his head against the door, holding his breath to differentiate between the words. All he could hear was Damon's voice, but he couldn't make out what he was saying. Neither could he hear the voice of the other person... unless Damon was talking to himself, which wasn't all that unlikely now that he thought about it.

In fact it was _very_ likely, Jeremy thought, the frown on his face deepening as he was trying to decide if he should be worried in general or on Elena's behalf.

Raising his hand as if to knock, Jeremy hesitated for a moment, but then changed his mind and just walked right in.

He wasn't sure what he expected to see, but it certainly wasn't this.

"Is you hand so tired from doing homework you can't be bothered to knock on the door?" Damon asked, rising to his feet, his eyebrows furrowed, although he seemed too tired to glare and for some reason Jeremy found it most upsetting.

His eyes focused on Elena who was lying on the bed, her eyes closed, face as motionless as it was when he had seen her for the last time five years ago, Jeremy was trying to decide if walking in on Damon talking to and apparently sleeping in one bed with his comatose sister was sad, weird, pitiful, heartbreaking or creepy. "Why is Elena here?"

"Why are _you_ here at 5am?" Damon shot back, kicking something that looked very much like a stake under the bed.

Jeremy narrowed his eyes at him, out of the corner of his eye noticing Damon's ring on Elena's finger.

"I live here," Jeremy said carefully, the scent of freshly cleaned floor prompting him to take another look around and realize that everything looked spotless including a very fancy-looking bottle of bourbon. "What's going on?" He asked in an unabashedly suspicious voice, slowly shifting his eyes back to Damon.

"Not on Wednesdays," Damon continued his previous train of thought, ignoring Jeremy's question. "And by the way, I want to see your grade report."

Jeremy snorted. "Yeah, sure. But could you first tell me why did you bring Elena here?"

Damon glanced at Elena's sleeping form over his shoulder and then looked at Jeremy again with a grim expression on his face. "Long story. Didn't Caroline call you?" He asked with a grimace.

"No," Jeremy widened his eyes at him, annoyed. "Why didn't _you_ call me? What happened? Did something happen to Elena? To Bonnie? To her spells? To the crypt?"

"Gee, I have no clue how we've managed to survive for so long without your helpful input," Damon muttered derisively. "I'll see you downstairs in a few minutes if that's OK with you," he added, ushering Jeremy out of the room and then slamming the door shut behind him.

Jeremy rolled his eyes, shot a glare at the door and headed downstairs.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Oh, come on, Elena. Playing hide and seek all day long is boring. And I've spent so much much time here watching you and Damon that I deserve some entertainment for a change," Kai said in whiny voice, pursing his lips and looking around the forest he had just walked into.

Elena ran soundlessly in between the trees, glancing over her shoulder and gritting her teeth at the bizarre, frightening impression that the further she ran, the louder his voice was becoming.

"By the way, don't you ever get tired of saying and hearing the same stuff over and over again?" Kai stopped, straining his ears. "I know I'd get really bored." Smirking to himself, he turned around. "You're not really surprised to see me here, are you? You couldn't possibly think I didn't have a plan B and C and... R," he chortled. "Plan R," he repeated in a theatrical voice. "I like this one. What do you think, Elena? Come on. Stop hiding. You're behaving as if I were some scary guy capable of awful things like murdering his own pregnant sister-" He trailed off and then chuckled. "Oh wait. I did that. But hey, still doesn't mean I'm _that_ scary. Your boyfriend, for instance, chopped my head off. Now _that'_ s scary. And painful. It hurt really, really bad. I have to say, caught me a little off guard, but fortunately I was prepared to be caught off guard. Would you believe my parents didn't think I was all that smart? They thought Josette was smarter and here we are. She's dead and I'm alive-ish." He trailed off again and looked up just in time to see all the trees around him break, but before the falling branches could smash him, he made them disappear with a wave of his hand.

All of a sudden, the forest was transformed into a desert with nowhere to hide. Turning around on one foot he came face to face with Elena who looked around in bewilderment.

"I'm sorry. Did you think it was your world?" Kai asked, tilting his head to the side. He pouted and then chuckled. "My spell, my rules."

Straightening up, Elena fought an automatic urge to run and told herself that he must've been lying at least to some degree. They were in _her_ mind and whatever tricks he was playing he wasn't in control of everything here. He couldn't be.

Kai grinned. "My special effects."

Elena frowned and then drew a sharp intake of breath when the ground under her feet suddenly vanished and she crashed into the water.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Sarah, this is Damon, Damon, this is Sarah," Jeremy introduced his companion when Damon joined them downstairs, a bit taken aback by an unexpected guest.

"Ah. Let me guess. You dropped out of college together."

Jeremy groaned. "What is your problem with my educational achievements all of a sudden?"

"We just happened to discuss it with your sister the other day. Tea? Coffee? Bourbon?" Damon asked, turning to Sarah, who quickly smiled at him in a rather forced way, which he couldn't blame her for.

"I don't know what Jeremy told you, but meeting me is a much nicer and less stressful experience than meeting any parents, so you can consider yourself lucky."

Something flashed in Sarah's face, but it was gone before Damon he managed to discern which word seemed to hit a nerve.

"Water, thanks." Sarah said in a low voice, holding onto the strap of her purse and only now it struck Jeremy as a little odd that she hadn't put her purse away.

"I'm guessing you haven't had a breakfast yet?" Damon asked, heading for the kitchen. "Would you like some-"

"Pancakes," Jeremy cut in, sending a smile Sarah's way. "He can't cook anything else."

"I heard that," Damon said, glancing at them over his shoulder. "So you're getting zero pancakes and your... fellow student you guilt-tripped into a road trip? Math tutor you begged to play your girlfriend? Random person you kidnapped?"

"My girlfriend," Jeremy replied, a little miffed.

"And your girlfriend is getting as many as she wants," Damon concluded his sentence and was about to disappear into the kitchen but then changed his mind and turned around. "Have you met in college?" He inquired in such a ridiculously matter-of-fact, bordering on concerned tone that it cost Jeremy some effort not to laugh.

"Really?" He asked, giving Damon an incredulous look.

"It's a casual question," Damon replied with a frown. "And a polite one at that, which can't be said about walking into someone's room without knocking."

"I'm sorry."

Sarah's voice was quiet when it broke into Damon and Jeremy's trite argument, but there was something odd enough about it that it drew Jeremy's attention and he looked at her wondering if maybe she wasn't feeling well.

During the entire car ride here Sarah had been strangely listless, but he thought she was just tired after a bad night sleep.

There was something in her hand, Jeremy noticed and it was one of those weird, horrible moments when everything seemed to be happening in slow motion and at the same time so fast that there was not enough time to even start wondering-

His eyes wide, Jeremy leaped toward Sarah, a glimpse of purple liquid in the syringe in her hand triggering an immediate reaction.

"They're my family, I told you, they're my family," Jeremy spoke hurriedly, completely shocked and bewildered by what was going on.

Why would his girlfriend try to use a deadly poison they were using while hunting vampires on someone he had told her was his family?

There were tears in Sarah's eyes when she looked at him, her hands shaking, but apparently she decided it wasn't the right time for explanations.

Using on him a foot sweep they had been practicing together on sunny mornings by the lake, she knocked Jeremy to the ground.

Utterly confused by the sudden turn of events, Damon zoomed toward Jeremy to help him, but before he could do anything he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder.

Out of the corner of his eye, Damon could see the syringe in Sarah's hand. It looked so small and insignificant and he couldn't fathom how it could hurt so much, the purple liquid blurring his vision as if it was suddenly splashed over his face, and he couldn't see anything anymore, couldn't stand, searing pain shooting through him as if his blood was set on fire, rushing through his veins and burning them inside out.

"No! Why did you do that?!" Jeremy shouted, jumping to his feet, confused and angry, his eyes flying to Sarah, her words registering in his mind a split second before another measured strike rendered him unconscious.

"He killed my parents."

xxxdelenaxxx

It was only imaginary water and she was only imagining choking on it, Elena knew, but somehow it was becoming increasingly difficult to think clearly when the pain was coursing through her body like grinding wheels, waves crashing against her over and over again, making it impossible for her to breathe, excruciating pain spreading through her chest every time she tried to catch her breath.

But perhaps that was exactly what she shouldn't be doing.

Clinging to the remnants of lucidity, Elena concentrated as hard as she could on the safest place she could imagine.

She squeezed her eyes shut and gathering all the strength she could muster, she started painting all the details in her head... the color of sunlight on the dark wooden floor... the scent of the leather-covered books stashed near the bed, the texture of the paint on the picture by the door...

Damon's face buried in her hair... his breath on her neck... his arm wrapped around her-

xxxdelenaxxx

"Is that Jeremy's car?" Caroline asked, walking across the hallway and into the living room.

"I thought you were late for your meeting," Stefan observed with a small smile, closing the door behind them.

It was strangely comforting that some things remained unchanged. In all the sadness and chaos, Caroline's unapologetic spontaneity-

"Jeremy!"

Stefan froze for a second and then rushed to the living room where he found Caroline kneeling on the floor next to Jeremy, trying to revive him.

Without thinking twice about it, Stefan hurried upstairs to Damon's room.

He pushed the door open and stumbled backwards caught off guard by the sight of Elena, who was standing near the bed, looking slightly confused and a little dizzy.

Elena's eyes lit up at the sight of him, but the petrified expression that appeared on Stefan's face made her smile fade and she drew a breath, feeling as if she was drowning again, only now it wasn't in a dream she could wake up from.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for all the fantastic reviews! :]

This chapter got a little out of control length-wise, but I'll try to keep chapters a bit shorter in the future ;) Also, I forgot to mention this at the beginning, but there may be some spoilers for _The Originals_ later in the story :)

 **Chapter 4**

"He's still unconscious, I can't- Oh my God," Caroline gasped and stopped dead in her tracks, staring at Elena who had to dismiss a hopeful thought that she was misinterpreting the expression in Stefan's eyes that terrified her so.

"Where is Bonnie?" Elena asked, hit by the realization, her eyes flickering between Caroline and Stefan.

If she was awake and they looked so dismayed it could only mean that they hadn't found a magical solution to her predicament. If she was awake, it meant that Bonnie... that Bonnie... Elena shuddered. "Where's Bonnie?" She repeated in a faltering voice.

Caroline glanced at Stefan. "Bonnie's fine," she said with a quick, impatient half-smile, leaping toward Elena. "How are you feeling?"

There was something so alarmingly gentle about the way Caroline asked the question that it only strengthened Elena's suspicion.

"What's going on?" Elena asked, her voice which she hadn't been using for five years coming out hoarse from a failed effort to shout. Glancing over Caroline's shoulder, Elena looked at Stefan, his face pale. "Where is Damon?" Elena whispered, stepping out of Caroline's embrace, her knees buckling when she tried to walk, but she grabbed onto the wardrobe to steady herself. "Why am I wearing his ring?" She asked, her voice shaking when her eyes fell onto her hand with Damon's ring on her finger.

She suddenly felt like the ground was vanishing from under her feet. If Bonnie was fine, but Stefan and Caroline were panicking at the sight of her...

"Oh, he didn't!" Caroline exclaimed angrily, but then quickly changed her tone noticing that Elena and Stefan both looked like they were about to collapse even without her giving them more reasons to worry.

"He didn't what?" Elena asked, turning around so fast she almost lost her balance.

Clinging to confusion, she was waiting for Stefan or Caroline to say something that would put her mind at ease, but Caroline seemed nervous and Stefan was still eerily silent, as if he was trying to wrap his mind around something that was escaping his comprehension and his obvious inability to even smile at her after her five-year-long absence made Elena's feel more and more frightened with every passing second.

"He didn't tell you?" Caroline asked back, not sure what she should say right now in order not to make everything even worse.

She really didn't think Damon would just go ahead and kill himself without waiting for his mother to at least consider Stefan's plea. And where was he anyway? Then again if Elena woke up to the sight of him with a stake in his heart or to the sight of the pile of ashes on the bed that would've been rather morbid, so perhaps it was for the better that he had gone somewhere-"

"He didn't tell me what?" Elena demanded, quite literally shaking Caroline out of her feverish reverie. "Where is he?"

A noise from downstairs that both Caroline and Stefan caught caused them to rush downstairs before Elena had the time to get an answer to her question.

Out of a habit, she wanted to zoom after them, but she almost tripped over her own feet instead. Biting her lip, she tried to overcome the dizziness that accompanied her since she had opened her eyes and with a determined frown, she followed Stefan and Caroline holding onto the walls in the corridor and then the banister on the stairs.

"What the hell happened here?!"

By the time Elena got into the leaving room Caroline was questioning Jeremy who was sitting on the edge of the couch, a bloody gash on his head.

Involuntarily, Elena's eyes traveled around the room for a few seconds, greedily taking in all the details, the reality, _reality_ around her suddenly overwhelming and so, so beautiful and yet she couldn't even bring herself to smile, because everything was falling apart before she could start hoping that the worst was over.

"Elena!" Jeremy cried out, jumping to his feet and running to her.

"Jeremy, what's going on?" Elena asked, grabbing onto his arms when he hugged her, hoping that maybe he could explain to her what was happening, but her question rendered Jeremy as speechless as Stefan and Caroline were.

Elena was about to repeat her question, but then suddenly everything faded to black and it was only for Jeremy catching her in time that she didn't crash to the ground.

xxxdelenaxxx

Damon's eyes flickered open, but they burned so much that he had to close them and brace himself for the pain before opening them again.

He dragged himself to a sitting position and for a few seconds he was able to fight the pain, but it quickly began becoming more and more intense. It was filling every cell in his body, destroying it and leaving only excruciating sensation of every part of him being torn apart, repeatedly.

His heart was pounding in his chest, faster and faster, so fast he was sure that soon it'd break out of his chest.

"It's going to hurt like this every time."

Damon's eyes wandered around the empty room, amorphous splashes of red and white obscuring his vision, making him feel as if he was trying to see after gazing at the sun for hours.

A few feet away there was a chair, a dark-haired girl was straddling it, her eyes fixed on him, her voice laced with a strange mixture of hatred and exhaustion.

"Who are you?" Damon asked, struggling to keep his eyes open, certain he had never seen her before.

"Didn't Jeremy introduce me? My name's Sarah. Sarah Nelson. Does it ring any bells?" She asked levelly, her voice indifferent, but her eyes were shining and the pain in them seemed so raw that for a few moments Damon forgot completely about every inch of his body hurting more than he'd ever think it possible to imagine and all he concentrated on was trying to guess what had happened to her, what he had done.

She paused. "I see it doesn't." The sardonic hint in her voice felt forced, angry, awkward. "What about Sarah Salvatore?"

Damon blinked, the sweat weighing down on his eyelids, so heavy he could only see a blurred shape of her when he tried to keep his head from lulling to the side.

"No? Nothing?" Sarah stood up. She walked toward him, but the closer she was the less clearly he could see her, the pain increasing with every second. "What about Gail and Zach?"

She held her breath, her nails digging into her curled up hands, but she didn't get to see the impact of her words in his eyes, because the poison struck again and Damon tumbled to the ground.

xxxdelenaxxx

His arm draped around her, Jeremy looked at Elena almost not believing that she was really here, looking at him and talking to him just a few minutes ago.

"So it's a magical poison that causes unbearable pain and kills a vampire, then revives him only to kill him again and the pattern continues for several hours. I get that," Caroline said with a frown, glancing at Jeremy in the rear-view mirror. "I mean, I don't get it, but let's assume I do," she added with a huff. "What I really don't get, however, is why would your girlfriend carry something like that with her?"

"And I don't get why you didn't tell me that Elena was linked to Damon, not to Bonnie and that Bonnie is a vampire!" Jeremy retorted, shifting his eyes between Caroline and Stefan who turned his head to look at him over his shoulder.

"Technically, Bonnie is a witchpire," Caroline clarified tartly. "And we only found out about Elena being linked to Damon yesterday. Now answer _my_ question."

"Why would your girlfriend do that to Damon?" Stefan asked, his eyebrows knitted together as he tried to guess what Jeremy was keeping from them, because it seemed clear that while he was shocked by what had happened, he was avoiding answering their questions.

"I don't know," Jeremy said sincerely, looking Stefan straight in the eye, but then he remembered something. "She said... Right before I blacked out I heard her say that... he killed her parents."

Stefan leaned his head against the headrest and looked at Caroline who was tapping the steering wheel while waiting for the green light.

"Well, I guess we can't rule out the possibility that it's true. Looks like she probably only hooked up with you to get back at him," Caroline concluded flatly, ignoring the expression on Jeremy's face.

"You can't know that! You don't know her. Sarah's not like that-"

"Sarah?" Stefan cut Jeremy off, almost jumping out of his seat while turning around to look at him. "How did you meet her?"

"Yes, Sarah Nelson," Jeremy said cautiously, regarding Stefan with a frown on his face. "Do you know her?"

"It's Sarah Salvatore and no, we don't know her _and_ you failed to answer Stefan's question," Caroline replied sternly.

"Sarah Salvatore?" Jeremy echoed, perplexed, completely taken aback by the revelation. "What do you mean by that? She can't be related to you. Sarah's not a vampire."

"No, she's not," Stefan said gravely. "She's Zach's daughter."

Jeremy widened his eyes at him. "Your uncle's daughter? So she's... your niece?"

"More like a great-great-great-great-great-great niece," Caroline corrected. "Are you going to tell us where did you meet her?"

Jeremy considered dodging the question again, but being stuck with Caroline in a car he didn't think he could avoid giving her an answer for much longer. "I met Sarah in the AVS," he said, his voice quiet enough to make the unfamiliar abbreviation sound suspicious.

"In the what?" Caroline asked with a grimace.

"In the Anti-Vampire Squad."

Caroline's foot hit the brake so hard that the car came to a sudden stop, tires screeching. "In the _what_?!" She repeated, turning in her seat to give Jeremy a bewildered look.

"Can we not talk about this right now?" Jeremy said, clenching his teeth. "That's beside the point."

"Is it?!"

"Caroline, let's drive," Stefan said, glancing at the cars behind them. "If Jeremy thinks he knows where she may be, that's our best bet and most important thing right now."

"No, no," Caroline waved her hands at him, too angry to just let it go. "Are you telling me, that while we all thought that you were the lucky one that got away, went to college and was living an all-around wonderful, normal life, the truth was that you were out there hunting vampires? Is that what you're saying?"

The sound of car horns started drowning their conversation, but it was only the buzzing of Caroline's phone that finally managed to draw her attention away from Jeremy.

"What is it now?" She muttered, getting the phone out of her purse and starting the engine.

"The AVS is not what you think it is. They're protecting people, trying to keep them safe. They're only targeting the vampires who are a threat-"

"Oh really? And how exactly are they determining that, if you care to share?" Caroline asked with utmost irritation only to change her voice to angelically sweet within a second. "Hi April. What is it?"

Jeremy threw her head against the back of his seat but then straightened up when Elena woke up with a gasp.

She looked around, catching a glimpse of the blur of green outside of the car window.

"Where are we going?" She quickly asked, her eyes moving between Jeremy, Stefan and Caroline who was glaring intermittently at her phone and into the windshield.

"What do you mean you let him wait in my office?" Caroline asked with a frown. "Why?"

"Where is Damon?" Elena asked, grabbing Jeremy's hand. "Please, tell me. I need to know what's going on. Why I keep falling asleep and waking up?"

"Kai linked you to Damon, not to Bonnie," Stefan said in a low voice and Jeremy wasn't sure if it was a good idea to just tell her that right now, because Elena's face drained of all color.

"What?" She whispered.

"We just found out about this yesterday."

"Fine. If he doesn't want to reschedule tell him to wait for as long as he wants, but not in my office," Caroline ended the call, tossing her phone back into her purse and then tossing the purse onto Stefan's lap. "She let him wait in my office because he _asked_ her to," she said mockingly, shrugging her shoulders to express the complete weirdness of such a justification. "I like her, but I'll have to fire her."

Everyone in the car fell silent.

Elena stared at her hands. It was almost dark in the car, both sides of the road guarded by tall trees, the sun above them barely seeping through the windows and only from time to time.

" _Promise me this is forever."_

"He was trying to say a goodbye to me. That's why he said he needed to see me for the last time."

" _I promise."_

Elena lifted her hand that felt so heavy as if she was balancing a stash of bricks over it and touched Damon's ring on her hand with trembling fingers. "He didn't... He couldn't..." She blinked rapidly, tears springing out of her eyes when she abruptly looked up, her nails digging into Jeremy's arm when she latched onto it. "Tell me he didn't-"

"No," Jeremy shook his head. "It's not like that. Someone... someone's taken him-"

"Sarah Salvatore, whom Jeremy's been dating thinking she was just some random cute vampire hunter, stabbed Damon with a temporary death-inducing poison," Caroline blurted out, ignoring Jeremy glaring at her. "Now we're going to where he thinks they might be, which is some secret hideout for vampire hunters, because, by the way, your brother dropped out of college to pursue a career as a serial killer, so you might want to sue him for all that tuition money he'd probably spent on fancy crossbows."

Elena shifted her eyes between everyone in complete bafflement, but before she could ask any questions, her eyelids closed and she drifted into the cimmerian sleep yet again.

xxxdelenaxxx

The grains of dust on the ground looked disproportionately big when Damon's eyes snapped open.

Slowly, he lifted his cheek off the floor and hissed when the sun streaming through the window hit his face. He pushed himself slightly backwards to avoid the light.

"Where did you lose your ring?" Sarah asked noncommittally, her voice closer than before and when Damon looked up he saw she was seating on the floor across from him. Holding a camera in one of her hands, she lifted the mounting ring off the lens with the other.

Damon looked at his hands that looked so appropriately empty. "I didn't lose it," he said after a pause, his voice hoarse, the pain disappearing for just a split second upon waking up before it would begin rising again, like an inexorable tidal wave. "I'm sorry."

One of the screws slid out of Sarah's hand and dropped to the floor with a brief, clinking sound.

She stiffened, her eyes shifting to Damon who wasn't looking at her. "Why did you kill them?" She asked in a strangled voice, holding onto her camera.

"If you didn't kill me yet to find out, then carry on," Damon said, feeling as if white-hot flames were bursting inside every cell of his body.

Sarah glared at him. "Do you think I won't kill you just to get this answer out of you?"

Damon looked up at her and something in his eyes made her hesitate. "That's not what I meant," he said, struggling for his words not to mingle, his vision becoming completely blurry again. "I meant that there was no reason. Wrong time, wrong place..." He grimaced. "No light... I would've undone it if I could. I'm sorry." He bent over, biting back a scream. "You have a right to kill me," he whispered in a raspy voice.

"Do you think I need your permission to do that?" She wondered briefly if that was his way of asking for forgiveness. "Or maybe you want to play a martyr?"

The deathly poison took over Damon again and he fell to the ground, his hand falling limply to the side, within the scope of the sun rays, his words drowning in the sound of his sizzling skin a moment before his heart stopped beating:

"I just want Elena to wake up."

Sarah stared at him for a second and then walked up to the window and drew up the curtains, blocking out the sun.

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena's car that Sarah had apparently taken parked next to a shabbily looking building seemed like a rather clear indication that Jeremy's intuition was right.

"Stefan and I are going in, you and Jeremy stay outside," Caroline ordered, looking around the desolate parking lot in the middle of nowhere.

Elena gave Caroline an incredulous look. "I'm going in!"

"I'm the only one going in," Jeremy interrupted with a grimace. "I'm the only one Sarah will listen to."

"Are you sure about that?" Caroline fumed, annoyed. "Because last time she saw you she knocked you unconscious and left you bleeding on the ground."

"I think Jeremy and I should go in," Stefan offered, receiving an impatient glare from Elena who after a moment of consideration decided that there was no point discussing anything with anyone.

"Elena!" Caroline called after her when Elena broke into a run toward the building's door. Caroline zoomed in front of her.

"Caroline, I _need_ to go in there!" Elena said, her tone firm and determined, her eyes sparkling with tears.

"But you're human and-"

"She's human too!"

"She's a vampire hunter!"

"And I'm not a vampire!"

Caroline huffed in exasperation and opened her mouth to continue arguing, but then her eyes flew to Stefan who called out her name.

Elena glanced at Stefan over her shoulder and then walked passed Caroline who seemed to have given in and reluctantly concede with Stefan's wordless plea that they should let Elena go in if she wanted to.

Jeremy rushed after Elena while Caroline shot Stefan a glare and then headed back to her car.

"If no one needs me here, I guess I'll just go to my meeting," she said, pulling the car door open.

"Caroline-"

She got into the driver's seat and started the engine. "Oh and don't forget to ask her to be nice." Caroline shot Stefan a quick, artificial smile. "Maybe it will work this time."

xxxdelenaxxx

Absently playing with the parts of her disassembled camera, Sarah looked at Damon, trying to remember what she was trying to accomplish.

It had felt like the right thing to do, like fate when she had realized who Jeremy was. She had joined AVS just so what had happened to her wouldn't happen to any other child's parents. She hadn't been thinking about revenge, not until it had almost literally knocked on her door. Only then had she started wondering that maybe she owed that to her parents.

But now that she was so close to executing justice it felt like such a hollow achievement. She didn't care about his apology, sincere or not. But what if killing him would just mirror his actions? What if it'd be just as senseless? Would it make her any better? Would it even at least make her feel better?

"Sarah."

She shuddered, Jeremy's voice shaking her out of her thoughts and when she turned around she saw someone run past to her.

It was the girl she recognized from Jeremy's pictures and Sarah followed Jeremy's sister with her gaze, watching her fall to her knees next to the man who had killed her parents, gathering him into her arms, cradling his head into her chest as if he was the most precious person in the world.

"Sarah, please, you don't want to do this," Jeremy said, approaching her carefully. "I know why you're doing it and I understand, but this is not going to change anything, it's not going to help. It will just make you feel worse."

"I'm so sorry this has happened to you," Elena spoke and Sarah shifted her eyes from Jeremy to her. "But when he did it... He was in a very dark place. He was all alone. His humanity was turned off. He wasn't being himself. He would've reversed it if he could."

"How are you awake?" Sarah asked and Jeremy noticed that she seemed tired, as if it's been three sleepless nights and not four hours since he'd seen her.

"They are linked," Jeremy said before Elena had a chance to answer. "Every time the poison stops Damon's heart Elena wakes up."

Out of the corner of her eye, Sarah saw Elena press her lips to Damon's forehead, tears rolling off her eyes onto his closed eyelids.

"He said he wanted me to kill him so you could wake up," Sarah said, a twinge of sympathy breaking through a strange sense of numbness that had overcome her the moment she'd put her bleak plan into action.

Elena's head snapped up. "No, please, don't do that." She drew a breath, feeling her mind cloud over, a signal that the sleep was coming. "Jeremy," Elena shifted her eyes to him, quickly taking Damon's ring off her finger and sliding it back onto his. "Tell him not to-"

Elena's head dropped onto Damon's chest in the very moment when his eyes fluttered open, his arms instinctively reaching out to keep the person in his arms from sliding to the floor, the realization who it was hitting him a second later and his eyes went wide.

"Elena." He wrapped his arms around her, gently stroking her hair with his hand, his eyes wandering all over her face.

Jeremy walked up to Sarah and looked at her, but her eyes were fixed on the scene in front of her.

She wasn't sure if she was that touched by this strange tragedy playing out before her or perhaps the pity was just an excuse that let her release herself from that abstract inner sense of duty to punish someone whom she didn't know, who didn't know her, but had got to change the course of her life, not for the worse or for the better, but change it nonetheless and she'd never be able to recover and get to know that part of her that belonged to the life she'd lost, that she could understand through the parents she'd never met.

"You should've told me."

Jeremy's voice was quiet and Sarah's eyes slowly moved away from Damon and Elena to look at him.

"I didn't know how," she said, blinking back the tears at the sudden, feverish realization that he was not judging her, or suspecting she'd spent the last two years just scheming behind his back. He understood. "I didn't know what to say. And right now I don't know what to do."

Jeremy gave her a faint smile. "I think you do."

xxxdelenaxxx

Caroline stormed into the room, stopping April from saying anything despite her attempts to do so and heading straight for her office.

"I'm sorry I'm late, but I had an unnatural disaster to attend to," she said, entering her office with a smile and deciding that if the mysterious investor turned out to be rude and unpleasant she'd just sign April up for an assertiveness training instead of firing her-

"I have to say the biscuits were terrible, tea dreadful, but we quite enjoyed spelling the most difficult words in the Sustainability Plan."

Caroline turned on her heel before she reached her desk, coming face to face with the guest who rose from his chair, a smirk playing about his lips.

"Klaus!" She gasped.

"We have a present for you!"

Caroline jumped up, caught off guard by her swivel chair spinning around to reveal another guest sitting in it.

A light-haired five-year-old girl slid off her chair and handed Caroline an envelope.

Caroline's eyes moved between Hope and Klaus. "A present?" She asked, perplexed and then smiled at Hope, taking the elegant envelope out of her hands.

Klaus clasped his hands behind his back and raised his eyebrows, a smirk not disappearing off his face.

Caroline opened the envelope.

A folded piece of yellowed paper slid out of it and she stared at it for a while before she looked up at Klaus, beaming.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I can't stay here," Sarah said, glancing at the boarding house and then looking back at Jeremy.

"Of course you can," Jeremy said in a reassuring tone, refusing to let go of her hand. "It's more your home than mine," he added with a weak smile that faded off his face when Sarah cut him off.

"He killed my parents! You were right that killing him wouldn't change anything and I'm glad I didn't do it. And I feel really sorry for your sister both because of her coma and because she loves him. And I'm sorry for hitting you and lying to you, even though... I wasn't lying about everything." She held his gaze for a few seconds before looking away. "Enzo showed me this house and I could've come here any time in the last five years. I guess I couldn't decide what to do and then you started insisting on taking me to your home town and I thought it was a sign..." She trailed off and drew a breath. "I have to go."

"Enzo?" Jeremy asked, confused but then brushed it off, focusing on the more urgent matter. "No, Sarah, wait." Jeremy ran in front of her. "Everyone understands why you wanted to do this. Please, don't leave. Caroline just called. If she really has the spell, Elena's going to wake up. I want you to be here where it happens. I need you. Stay here for me. If it wasn't all an act, these two years-"

"I slammed you against the wall and knocked you unconscious," Sarah said, something in her face softening despite her abrupt tone. "You're awfully quick to forgive things."

Jeremy smiled. "You have no idea."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Where is she?" Damon asked, pacing around the living room so fast he nearly put out the fire every time he walked near the fireplace. "How long does it take to drive here from the mayor's office?"

"I don't know, but I bet it takes longer than three minutes and thirty six seconds," Stefan said after consulting his watch.

Damon narrowed his eyes at him and then sat on the edge of the couch next to Elena, who hadn't woken up again since Sarah had given him the antidote and his temporary deaths had stopped.

But then Caroline had called.

Very lightly, Damon brushed Elena's cheek with the backs of his fingers.

And in that moment he started believing in miracles again.

"I'm here!" Bonnie called, running into the room, barely able to catch her breath.

Damon jumped to his feet. "Well, Bonnie apparently got here in less than three minutes," he said, giving Stefan a meaningful look.

"I zoomed here," Bonnie said a little giddily, before checking herself. She wasn't supposed to enjoy being a vampire. Especially not after being repugned by the idea of being a vampire for so long.

"And Caroline's driving," Stefan said defensively.

"Hopefully here and not to New Orleans," Damon retorted.

Stefan's mouth twitched. "Are you trying to say something?" He asked with a frown.

"Other than what you've already inferred, no," Damon said and then leaped to the door when it opened and Caroline walked in, carrying something in her arms.

"This is the first time you've ever run to the door to welcome me," Caroline said, tilting her head to the side and giving Damon a stiff smile, before helping Hope climb off her arms and onto his.

Confused, Damon opened his mouth to speak, but Hope cut him off.

"Hi, I'm Hope. What's your name?"

Damon looked at her, blinking.

"Here," Caroline said, waving a piece of paper in front of Damon's face. "The spell."

Damon grabbed the piece of paper and to Hope's delight dashed to the living room so fast that it felt like being on a roller coaster.

Stefan glanced at them over his shoulder and then turned to Caroline."So where's the catch?" He asked with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes as he was trying to convince himself that Caroline's eyes were glimmering with joy just for the obvious reason of Elena being about to wake up.

But then he noticed that Caroline's face fell and he gave her a questioning look.

"Klaus wants Elena's blood," Caroline said in a low voice.

Stefan sighed. "Of course. To make more hybrids."

"Well, that probably too, but first of all, he wants the cure to reverse some Crescent Curse that his aunt put on Hayley's pack five years ago."

Stefan looked at Caroline, considering her words for a few seconds, but then a familiar adorable half-hearted sheepish expression on her face made him smile a little. "And let me guess. You just asked him to be nice?"

But Caroline seemed far from amused and instead of smiling back at him she winced. "Not exactly." She bit her lip. "I just didn't think he'd care much for Damon's suburban bliss!" She huffed in frustration and then lowered her voice to a hesitant whisper. "I just wanted to buy us some time and..." She took a deep breath. "I might've told Klaus that your mother also wants the cure and she'll stop at nothing to get it."

xxxdelenaxxx

Hope was sitting on the couch, leaning forward and watching Bonnie with wide eyes, fascinated by the strange-sounding words and the flickering candles.

When the chanting stopped, she shifted her eyes to Elena and thought it was funny how she couldn't differentiate between the sleeping girl's and Damon's fingers, because they were so tightly intertwined together.

Damon's eyes were fixed on Elena's face as he was hovering over her, his heart hammering in his chest.

Suddenly, the candles burned brighter and Hope's eyes widened even more. She held her breath, just like Damon and Bonnie did and then she almost fell off the couch in glee when the sleeping girl opened her eyes and woke up from what Caroline had said was a really, really, really long sleep.

When Elena's eyes fluttered open the ceiling above her looked so far away that she thought she'd have to remember about that the next time she'd be imagining it-

Suddenly, there was a hand on her cheek and Elena shivered, feeling the warmth radiate through her and she was afraid to move, so the sensation wouldn't disappear, the intensity of it taking her breath away, as if it was completely real, as if-

Her eyes widened slowly when Damon's face appeared right above hers and she lifted her hand to touch his cheek, his chin, his mouth...

His name on her lips and hers on his drowned in broken laughter, in healing tears when Damon pulled Elena into his arms and all the hours they'd lost disappeared when they kissed.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thank you so much for all the beautiful reviews! :):):)

&... Recommendations time! :)

 **scarlett2112** is currently writing three amazing, ultra-creative DE AU stories: **Nothing Else Matters** , **Shatter Me** and **What If I Was Nothing**. **Seddielover945** is working on a gorgeous DE fic **It's the Rain**.You can also find (at her tumblr) a stunning DE story **It Came to Me in a Dream** written by **standbydelena**. If you're watching _Once Upon a Time_ (or even if you aren't ;) you must read **Hearts and Monsters** by **Willofthewisp** \- it's a beautiful journey through S4 and S5 told flawlessly from Killian's POV. And if you left a piece of of your heart in the Caribbean, **Sleepy Lotus** has returned with a new, fabulous story **With This Ring, or Fate Intervenes** and she has also rewritten her timeless classic **More Than One Way to Live Forever** , so you may definitely want to check out the new version :)

 **Chapter 5**

She was really here and it was really him holding her real hand in his real hand.

Elena felt like she was out of breath just thinking about it. She kept brushing the back of Damon's hand with her thumb, amazed by simply feeling the texture of his skin under her fingertips without the necessity to conjure it up out of her memories. Her heart was racing and it was very difficult to pay attention to the conversation while she just wished they could be alone and stay in each other's arms until she stopped fearing that the reality might slip away from her again.

Damon let go of her hand for a second, but only to wrap his arm around her, pull her into his arms and clasp her other hand in his. He buried his nose in her hair and pressed a kiss to the top of her head and smiled at her when she looked up at him before they shifted their eyes to Stefan and Caroline again.

"Does anyone else find it amusing that Stefan's girlfriend-to-be sent her ex-boyfriend to kill her mother-in-law-to-be?" Damon asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

"No," Stefan retorted immediately, giving Damon a pointed look.

"No, not really," Bonnie concurred, polishing her daylight ring with the hem of her blouse.

Elena's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Girlfriend-to-be? I thought I was asleep for five years."

Caroline glared at Damon. "Can we stay on topic?"

"Yes, well, you didn't miss much of that story," Damon said, leaning his cheek against the side of Elena's head.

Caroline crossed her arms over her chest, fuming. "And Klaus was never my boyfriend!"

"I know, I was just being polite," Damon replied and Caroline grabbed a sculpture standing on a cabinet nearby and was about to throw it at him, but got distracted by Bonnie stifling a laugh and then coughing awkwardly when Caroline's eyes flashed to her.

"I kind of miss the times when you wanted to burn him alive," she snapped, glaring at both Damon and Bonnie.

"And I miss the times when we weren't endorsing Klaus' killing sprees," Bonnie muttered. "I should open a shop with these," she said, lifting her hand and looking at her ring with her eyes narrowed.

Elena listened to them, feeling like she should intervene yet at the same time the squabble sounded so familiar, so real that there was something oddly comforting about it and she was sure it'd earn her a few confused looks, but at this moment right now she felt like she could listen to it all day.

"We're wasting time," Stefan observed stoically, shooting Damon another meaningful look. "Is there any reason why we're still standing here and talking while Klaus' about to kill our mother?""

"Yes, there is," Damon replied, tilting his head to the side. "I'm still in the process of deciding if I care."

Stefan rolled his eyes.

Elena brought Damon's hand to her face and placed it on her cheek. "How many more seconds is this process going to take?" She asked, her tone serene.

"I'm done with that process," Bonnie cut in, glancing toward the window where Jeremy and Sarah were talking while Hope was running around, picking flowers from the grass. "I don't care."

Damon gave Stefan a small triumphant smile that Stefan returned when Elena just grabbed both of Damon's hands and started walking toward the door.

Damon groaned under his breath. "Alright, alright, I will go, but _you_ are not going anywhere," he said, sweeping Elena off her feet and into her arms. "Shuttle service to the rose-scented bubble bath?" He asked with a smile.

Elena returned his smile, her mouth almost involuntarily falling onto his before she managed to stop herself and remember about the circumstances and everyone else present in the room. She quickly kissed him three times, each time her lips lingering on his a moment longer.

"Let's do just that when we get back," she said, cupping his face in her hands.

"Elena-"

"I know it's been five years, so I'm going to help you out and remind you that I never listen when you tell me not to go somewhere because it's dangerous," she said, brushing her lips against his once again, the rush of warmth reminding her of the first moment when he had touched her. He had taken her hand in his and kissed it, holding her gaze and she'd brushed it off at the time, but now the memory of still feeling the touch of his lips on her skin hours later made her smile.

A flicker of a mischievous smile passed through Damon's face. He gently placed Elena back on her feet and slid his hand into her hair.

She briefly thought, a little amused, that he forgot about the vervain in her nail polish and was going to compel her to stay home, but then she held her breath when he leaned his forehead against hers.

"You did when I said I didn't want you to have any part in killing Klaus back at the homecoming party," Damon said in a low voice, his eyes drawing her back into the sense of safety that had once caught her off guard.

He'd asked her if she trusted him and it was as if the answer had rolled off her tongue without her even thinking about it and yet she'd felt like never before had she ever said anything with as much conviction in her voice.

" _Yes."_

" _Then you have nothing to worry about."_

Damon's eyes lit up in a warm, gentle smile. "What about that trust now?"

Elena sighed. "It's a different situation, Damon," she tried, but Damon shook his head, lightly pushed her head toward him making her lips collide with his.

Caroline sighed. "I want a refund for being forced to watch this," she muttered.

"Yes, it is different," Damon said with a grimace. "A coven of heretic witchpires wants your blood, so I'd say it's more than sensible not to let them know you're awake."

"Speaking of, how do we know Klaus won't tell them about it?" Bonnie asked, receiving an almost indignant look from Caroline.

"Why would he tell them about that?"

Bonnie laughed dryly. "Because it's Klaus? And he may very well walk in there fully intending to kill Lily and walk out as her ally intending to kill us."

"That's absurd!" Caroline said, rolling her eyes and then giving Stefan a questioning look when she noticed him watching her carefully.

"We don't know what she wants the cure for. What if it's something that Klaus will also find appealing?" Bonnie continued. "Not to mention that... didn't you promise him the cure anyway?"

Elena swirled on her feet toward Caroline. "What?"

"I didn't promise him anything!" Caroline exclaimed, annoyed. "I just... didn't tell him that... we may not give him the cure."

"We _may_ _not_?" Elena echoed, not sure if she was more terrified or baffled by the revelation.

Caroline huffed in exasperation. "Elena! I'm sorry, but could you perhaps focus on appreciating the fact you're awake? Do you think Klaus would've given me the spell had I told him right away he wouldn't be getting the cure? And maybe it's just me, but based on experience, I'd rather deal with angry Klaus than angry Lily, thank you very much."

"It is just you," Bonnie blurted out and then grimaced a little when Caroline looked like she was about to toss her out of the window. "I'm sorry, I don't know why the vampire me is more like the... usual you," she added with a shrug.

"The usual me? What is that supposed to mean?" Caroline demanded, looking her up and down.

"I think we should go," Stefan cut in.

"Actually, I'm still not sure if I care," Damon muttered.

Elena stepped on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.

"You do."

"I do?"

"Yes," Elena confirmed, stifling a laugh and planting a few more kisses all over his face.

Damon grumbled something under his breath and before following Stefan he pulled Elena into his arms and hugged her so hard she felt tears sting her eyelids when she squeezed her eyes shut.

"I missed you so much," he whispered into her ear and then slowly, reluctantly released her, holding her gaze on his way of the room.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Looks like I'm outnumbered," Klaus said with a smirk, looking between the three people in what looked like very a stylishly furnished drawing room. He was even going to comment on it, but a poor reproduction of the _Dancer with a Bouquet of Flowers_ on the wall made his brows furrow.

Lily was sitting directly across from him, with a brown-haired man on her left and a black-haired women occupying an armchair to his right.

"We've heard about you," Lily said, watching Klaus taking a sip of his tea.

"Very good tea," Klaus said, putting the cup down. "From Boston by any chance?" Lily narrowed her eyes at him which only broadened his smile "I have to admit, that line no longer impresses me much. At some point you just get used to being famous."

"And to what do we owe the honor of this visit?" The woman asked, angling her head to the side. She looked ageless enough, but a cynical glint in her eyes made her look older than she probably was.

"I'm pleased you consider it an honor," Klaus answered pleasantly, making himself more comfortable on the couch. "I haven't been socializing much these past few years. Family drama. It's quite frustrating how easily people get upset over the most insignificant collateral damage. One would think they should look past the limited horizon of today when there's eternity to consider."

"So you came here to talk about your personal problems?" The man next to Lily asked, squinting.

Klaus continued smirking. "I'm sorry, I don't believe I caught your names?" He looked around the room.

"I'm Gretta and this is Malcolm," the dark-haired woman made the introductions. "And you must already know Lily's name since you came to see her."

"Yes, well, Stefan and I go way back," Klaus said conversationally, glancing at the painting above the fireplace. Yet another copy. How unfortunate. "As I'm sure you know. Unless you hadn't had much time to catch up before you got on his bad side by hurting the lovely Elena. Rule number one: don't hurt Elena," he laughed briefly, but no one else even smiled, so he continued. "But maybe I could help you fix that. A happy family reunion would be so nice, wouldn't it?"

"You're looking at a happy family reunion right now," Gretta said, glancing at Lily who returned her smile.

"Ah yes. Someone might've mentioned to me that your motherly sentiments have been compromised in favor of..." Klaus waved his hand in an indecisive manner. "What exactly? If I may be as inquisitive as to pry a little?"

"What exactly is the purpose of this visit?" Lily asked levelly and Klaus tried to see through the dark glass of her eyes, but to no avail.

Klaus chuckled to himself, reaching out for his tea cup. "You'd laugh if I told you."

"Would I?" Lily asked sharply, growing irritated by her unexpected guest's demeanor.

"I simply want to know why you want the cure," Klaus said, raising his eyebrows at the silence that filled the room after everyone exchanged looks that weren't in any way telling, but seemed to reveal the tension hanging in the air. "Because I want it to, which, as you may easily surmise may potentially lead to an undesirable conflict of interests."

"What do _you_ need the cure for?" Malcolm asked, propping his head on his hand.

"That collateral damage issue I mentioned before," Klaus said, pursing his lips a little. "I had to allow for a few friends to be put under quite an uncomfortable curse and the cure could relieve them from it."

"The cure can only be used for one person," Lily countered, regaining her composure, her attitude becoming more practical.

"Well, I don't want to bore you with all the magical details, but due to a certain connection that's been forged between different werewolves' packs-"

"We're not interested in your reasons," Gretta observed, cutting Klaus off in mid-sentence. "The cure is ours to take."

"You sound very confident," Klaus said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes and then added in a lower, sincerely curious voice. "Too confident, perhaps?"

"I'm confident that you may be willing to consider helping us in acquiring the cure."

Klaus glanced at Lily who, strangely enough, seemed both calmer and more predatory.

"I'm intrigued," he said, briefly considering killing all of them in four seconds, because making deals with terrible parents was one of his least favorite pastimes.

"Once the cure will be in our hands, you won't even want it anymore," Gretta said a little dreamily, her eyes sparkling with impishness that still seemed soothingly overconfident.

"We want to change the world for the better," Lily added.

Klaus smiled. "That sounds like an ambitious plan. But I'm struggling to see the appeal."

"You don't understand," Malcolm interjected. "We want to change the world so it will be better for us. Vampires," he amended when Klaus' forehead wrinkled a little in confusion.

"I thought you were vampires _and_ witches-" Klaus tried to clarify, a little playfully, but Gretta interrupted him, her voice utterly serious.

"Everyone is trying to make us feel bad about who we are. Even if someone flips their humanity switch off, there are always those who are trying to turn it back on. They're judging us, pushing us away, forcing us to live as exiles on our own land. And you, for instance."

"Me?" Klaus narrowed his eyes at her, trying to guess the direction in which the conversation was going, but he was at a loss.

"You're wasting your time coming here to negotiate getting the cure for the sake of some werewolves. Why do you even care?"

"Well, to be honest, I don't care all that much, but my brother, the one I daggered the least amount of times, got disproportionately upset with me over this and-"

"And why do you care about your brother?"

Klaus blinked. "Is that a tricky question?" He asked after a pause, mustering a small smile.

"No, it's not," Malcolm said in a bored voice.

"You care about him because you love him," Gretta concluded.

"Thia may be it!" Klaus exclaimed with feigned glee. "How very insightful of you."

"Love is the greatest weakness," Malcolm stated, brushing the dust off the side of the couch before placing his arm over it.

Klaus' eyes flickered from the grains of dust to Lily, suddenly not being in the mood to even joke to Stefan later on about his mother's friend channeling Michael.

"Wouldn't you want not to feel it?" Lily asked in a blank voice that sent shivers up Klaus' spine and he couldn't recall the last time it had happened. "Be truly free?"

"No worrying about anyone," Gretta took over so seamlessly as if they had been rehearsing the speech. "No sense of obligation or guilt. No caring about what others think or feel. No need for anyone's presence. No missing anyone. Depending on nothing other than what sustains your body."

Klaus listened to them with a poker face, finding it darkly amusing that during this visit he was experiencing so many emotions he hadn't really felt since childhood. Right now, for instance, he was feeling as uncomfortable as when he would've run into Michael while sneaking into the pantry in the middle of the night. It was the same organic feeling of _really_ wishing to be somewhere else.

"No pain," Malcolm added, his mouth coming close to forming a smile, but not quite.

"But in order for it to work, everyone would have to be the same way," Gretta said, beginning to explain something that Klaus was trying to grasp: how what they were talking about was any different from choosing to turn one's humanity off.

"The cure is an ingredient we need to be able to perform the spell that'd enable us to absorb love from everyone. Vampires, witches, humans."

"Right now it'd only work for vampires and witches since that's who we are," Malcolm clarified with another almost smile.

"What about werewolves and hybrids?" Klaus asked, feeling like he was participating in some absurd conversation about biological systematics.

"Werewolves are mortal therefore technically human and hybrids are half-vampires, half-werewolves. Should we get into greater detail?" Gretta asked, somewhat amused, squinting.

"Oh, there's no need," Klaus said dismissively. "I just wonder, if you absorb all the love-"

"Absorbing it equals destroying it," Malcolm replied before Klaus finished his sentence.

"Efficient," Klaus quipped, reaching for his tea. And here he was thinking Esther was the craziest of them all.

xxxdelenaxxx

Bonnie and Caroline exchanged smiles watching Elena stare into the fireplace as if it was the most fascinating phenomenon. She followed each flame with her eyes, taking in all the shades of ashes underneath them.

"Since we've caught up on all the gossip-"

"Telling someone that you don't want to be with them, because falling in love means losing control and control is fun is no gossip," Bonnie blurted out, stretching her legs along the couch. "It's ridiculous."

Caroline huffed in exasperation. "I've been trying to be nice, but I have to tell you. You were difficult as a human witch, but as a witchpire you're insufferable!"

"Let's not argue," Elena said with a smile, tearing her gaze away from the fireplace.

"I'm not arguing. I'm just stating the obvious. You don't think that's ridiculous?"

"Of course she doesn't think that's ridiculous!" Caroline responded before Elena had a chance to. "And I didn't say control was fun. I said it was something I needed. I'd also appreciate if we stopped talking about me."

"Fine," Bonnie said with a shrug. "I was thinking that we could go on a field trip, show Elena what's changed in Mystic Falls-"

The door opened and Elena jumped to her feet and ran to the door so fast Bonnie managed to only mumble 'never mind'and fall back against the couch with a smile.

"If that's human speed I need to get back to the gym," Caroline said, watching Elena launch herself into Damon's arms, wrap her arms around him and sprinkle innumerable kisses all over his mouth. "Where is Stefan?" Caroline called out, ignoring Bonnie raising an eyebrow at her.

"When- we- got- there- Kla- us- was- al- rea- dy- in-side-"

"Elena, could you please stop kissing him, because I want to know what happened," Caroline said, rolling her eyes.

"Don't stop," Damon murmured against Elena's lips.

She laughed and kissed him one more time before, hand in hand, they went into the room.

"And before Stefan succeeded in convincing me that instead of waiting for the screams we should get in there, Klaus walked out, so I figured I'd go home and Stefan would take Klaus to a bar to bond over having evil parents," Damon said with a tight smile.

"So you don't even know what your mother said to him?" Caroline asked incredulously.

"I'll happily hear all about it tomorrow," Damon said and disappeared with Elena up the stairs before Caroline managed to say anything more.

"What do I do now?" Caroline exclaimed helplessly, throwing her arms into the air.

"Come with me to see Enzo," Bonnie replied right away, rising to her feet.

Caroline twirled around to face her. "What?!"

"Damon and I were supposed to meet up with him tonight, but I have a feeling Damon forgot all about it and I'm feeling a little wary of going alone, so-"

"He killed you!"

"That's why I'm wary of going alone," Bonnie repeated and there was something so defiant in Bonnie's eyes that Caroline decided to quit arguing and just go with whatever she was saying.

xxxdelenaxxx

There were so many words she wanted to say, so many thoughts running through her head when she was looking around the room that for five years could only exist for her as a figment of her imagination.

Elena heard the muted sound of the door being closed behind them, Damon's footsteps measured, quiet against the wooden floor illuminated by the setting sun outside the window that used to greet her every morning with the sight of the pale sky, spring, summer, fall, winter trees shimmering in the breeze.

Damon's hand landed softly on her shoulder and she smiled, leaning into him, looking at the landscape outside, no longer just a memorized painting, but a real view that became a part of her like his lips firm and gentle against her skin, his fingers tracing a trembling path up her arm, his voice in her ear, echoing through her.

"You're home, Elena."

Smiling, she turned around in his arms and lifted her hand to cup his cheek. "I was home every time I saw you. Even when the world around us wasn't real. We were always real. We will always be real."

Damon outlined the contour of her lips with his fingertips, slid his hands into her hair and holding Elena's face near his started trailing unhurried kisses across her lips.

"I don't want to spend another day without you."

"You won't."

They kissed, their hands caressing each other's faces, Damon's arms moving around Elena, pressing her toward him closer... closer... her hands anchored on his shoulders, kisses growing feverish, a gasp escaping her when he dragged his lips to her neck, never taking them off her skin on the way. She ran her hand through his hair, leaning down to scatter kisses over the side of his face.

She barely noticed the sound her dress made when it drifted to the floor, her hands tugging on the sleeves of his shirt, tearing it off him, a few buttons hitting the ground before the fabric joined them.

"It's a tradition, after all," Damon whispered, with a lop-sided smile and Elena wanted to smile back, but his palms wandering across her bare skin took her breath away and she tried to regain her breathing through a series of impatient, heated kisses, her lower lip trapped in between his when he hoisted her into his arms and carried her to their bed.

Her head sank into the soft pillows, obscuring her vision of everything to her right and to her left, leaving in focus only his face hovering above hers, the light in her eyes mirrored in his incandescent gaze.

"I love you," they whispered at the same time, their smiles colliding, an onslaught of sweet, endless kisses accompanied by the ever-intensifying feeling of closeness.

Elena shuddered, feeling Damon's entire weight on her, his hands lost in her hair, clutching her hips. Running her open palms over his shoulders, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth, deeply, responding to every burning touch of his lips on her skin.

Trailing open-mouthed kisses across her collarbones, Damon buried his face in Elena's neck, his cheek hot against the side of her face.

She closed her eyes, holding onto him as they dashed through the storm rising within them, rolling over invisible waves, breathless.

His lips found hers once again and they soared together beyond the dreams, each kiss fiercely real until they fell into each other's arms and started falling asleep in a skin-tight embrace, staring into each other's eyes.

xxxdelenaxxx

" _Wakey-wakey."_

 _Elena's eyes fluttered open. Wrinkling her forehead, she looked around-_

 _And sat upright at the sight of Kai waving to her from where he was sitting cross-legged on the ground._

" _No!"_

Her scream catching in her throat, Elena was about to jump to her feet and run, but then her eyes opened _again_ and she found herself in Damon's arms, just like she remembered falling asleep.

Trying to calm her breathing, she shifted in Damon's tight embrace, reaching out to brush the backs of her fingers across his face. He smiled faintly in his sleep, draping his leg over hers under the comfortably cool, silky bed cover.

Confused by the nightmare, Elena adjusted the position of her head on Damon's outstretched arm and nestled her head back into his chest.

She closed her eyes.

" _I have to say, I'm developing some abandonment issues due to you leaving me here all alone like that," Kai said, appearing in front of her as soon as the sleep took over her senses._

Elena's eyes snapped open and she pressed herself to Damon as closely as possible, slightly lifting her head to scan the dark room with frightened eyes.

But the bedroom looked peaceful enough, the fireplace sizzling quietly in the other side of it, Damon's breathing even against her skin.

If it had happened only once, she would've brushed it off as a nightmare, but seeing Kai also the second time she had fallen asleep...

Slowly lowering herself back into Damon's embrace, Elena wrapped her arm around him and blinking back remnants of sleep, decided to spend the night trying to not fall asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for all the awesome reviews! :]

 **Chapter 6**

Elena ended up waking Damon in the middle of the night, but she didn't really get a chance to explain to him why, because he wordlessly assumed the most optimistic version and immediately proceeded to showering her with kisses.

Leaning into his touch when he cupped her cheek in his hand, it occurred to Elena that maybe she was panicking for no reason. Maybe it _was_ only a nightmare. So what if it had happened twice. Recurring nightmares weren't uncommon. Also, she shouldn't be surprised Kai was acting in these nightmares as if he was in control of his words and actions. That's how nightmares worked. If it'd be possible to completely design one's dreams no one would ever suffer from nightmares.

After watching Damon sleep for a longer while, Elena braced herself and closed her eyes-

 _A sizzling sound and the smell of burning flesh caused her to shudder. She abruptly turned around to the sight of herself in the mirror, her clothes and hair on fire, the pain spreading through her body the moment she realized what was happening._

" _Trying to sleep?" Kai asked with feigned concern, making a sad face. "I'm afraid that's not going to be possible until I wake up."_

Elena's eyes snapped open and she winced, biting her lip so hard it started to bleed.

xxxdelenaxxx

The sky was already dark when they reached the Wickery Bridge, but Caroline decided to keep to herself a remark that it was somewhat worrisome that it was already dark at 9pm at this time of the year. They had enough reasons to worry, even without adding weather anomalies to it.

The river below looked eerie and Caroline wondered why she'd never noticed it before. Maybe because it had been just a river, just a bridge until Elena's parents had died here. And after that she'd hardly looked at it at all.

Just like pink bikes with purple streamers and license plates covered with glitter used to be the source of ultimate joy. Now her heart would shatter into a million razor-sharp pieces every time she saw a bike like that in the street.

Some things never changed, Caroline thought cheerlessly, but perception of them changed too often.

"He's here," Bonnie muttered, glancing at her watch. "We're late."

Caroline gave her a stunned look. "Seriously? And he was what, perfectly on time when he came to kill you?"

"Just because you were lucky to be killed by someone irredeemable and universally loathed doesn't mean you must guilt-trip others for not wallowing in hatred," Bonnie retorted.

"Oh, I'm sorry, does he get a free pass because he's your newest best buddy's oldest best buddy?"

"I did _not_ say that."

"Yeah, well, I have troubles deciphering what you're saying lately," Caroline whispered through her teeth and then fell silent and straightened up to look as aloof as possible.

Enzo lifted his gaze from where it was lost in the current and turned toward them. "Whatever I did to deserve the presence of two princesses instead of one?" He asked with a ghost of a lop-sided smile flickering across his face.

"Nothing, obviously," Caroline snapped. "What with the creepy get-together? You have three minutes to talk."

Enzo glanced around. "It's not that creepy here."

"It's creepy because you are here."

"Damon couldn't come," Bonnie said, trying to give Caroline a silencing look, but to no avail.

"Yeah, he had a couple of online shopping surveys to fill out. Priorities, you understand," Caroline said with an artificial smile.

Enzo was looking at her with a smirk, and Bonnie wasn't sure with so little light around them to go by, but it seemed to her that his eyes were strangely glassy. It wasn't as if his smile wasn't reaching his eyes. It was as if there were no emotions of any kind in his eyes whatsoever.

"Don't you want to know why Lily wants the cure?" Enzo asked and both Bonnie's and Caroline's eyes focused on him with more attention.

"And you'd tell us that why?" Caroline questioned, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Wait," Bonnie interrupted before Enzo had the time to answer. "When you came to my house yesterday you said you didn't know why Lily wanted the cure. I'm guessing you _just_ found out?"

Caroline folded her arms, giving Enzo an even more irritated, questioning look.

"I don't need you to trust me," Enzo muttered after a pause. "I need you to help me."

Caroline snorted mirthlessly. "You're kidding, right?"

"The reason why I turned you-"

Caroline made a grinding noise. "It was a lie detector," she explained, glaring at Enzo. "You said you turned her to 'check' if it was true that Elena's sleep was linked to Damon's life, not to Bonnie's. Now you have a new explanation?"

"I can hardly explain anything if you keep interrupting me," Enzo grunted, looking between Caroline and Bonnie. "What about those three minutes to talk?"

"Fine," Caroline said through her teeth, prompting him to begin by widening her eyes at him.

"I did want to see if Damon and Elena were linked. That was one reason. I... I remembered I'd want to check that," he said with a pensive frown and Caroline was already starting to lose her patience with his confusing 'explanation'.

"You _remembered_?"

Bonnie poked her and she rolled her eyes.

"The other reason was that... I'm like them now. A vampire and a witch and I wasn't sure if it'd work, that's why I didn't tell you yesterday, but I was hoping that if I turned you, you'd become like us too," he said, looking at Bonnie who was too perplexed by his casually remorseless account to even glare at him much. "And then... I was hoping you could fix me."

"Fix you?" Caroline snarled, but Enzo didn't seem to react to her interruptions anymore.

Bonnie was listening to him in silence.

"A few weeks after I left with them, Lily asked if I wanted to be as free as they were. It sounded bewitching enough, except that it turned out..." He trailed off with a grimace as if he wasn't able to find the right words.

"Aw, it's not fun being a witchpire? Maybe we should be feeling sorry for you? After you turned Bonnie into one!?"

"Caroline!" Bonnie actually exclaimed, receiving a surprised look from her.

"It's not about being a witchpire," Enzo said in a low voice. "It's about..." He fell silent and looked to the side when the trees rustled in the wind and Caroline's drew a deep breath in order not to sharply prompt him to continue. "They know a spell that sucks all the love out of you."

Caroline made a confused face. "What?"

Bonnie just held his gaze, feeling cold shivers creep up her spine.

"It's like a humanity switch... Only once it's done you can't turn it back on. When she told me about it, I thought it made sense. No love meant freedom. If you don't love anyone, no one can let you down. No one can hurt you. Disappoint you. Leave you," he added, his eyes glowing in the darkening air, but Bonnie couldn't help but notice they still remained empty. "So I agreed and they did it to me and now I don't feel _anything_. It doesn't feel like only love has gone away. It feels like _everything_ has faded, like every single bone in my body was replaced with something airy, something fluid," he grimaced with angry disgust. "Like everything around was replaced by fake versions of everything. I look up and I don't see the sky. I see a large stripe of some color. I look at the river and I see water. I have my memories, but the good ones are blurred, hazy, they're slipping through my fingers and it's so very tiring, endlessly exhaustive and painful trying to keep them."

"What do you expect Bonnie to do about it?" Caroline asked barely above a whisper and Bonnie suddenly felt five times worse, just because the quiet seriousness and lack of mocking in Caroline's voice was terrifying.

Something lit up in Enzo's eyes and he almost leaped toward her. "You're a witchpire now. Just like them. You can figure out a counter spell."

"Why do you think it's enough to be a witchpire? They're from a different coven. What if it's a spell only the Gemini coven can perform?" Bonnie asked with a grimace. "There's no one left of it. Jo, Liv, Luke and their father are dead and Kai had killed everyone else before Damon killed him."

"You must find a way," Enzo said desperately. "I can't live like this. No one can. And they can do it to any vampire or a witch and they're going to do it to everyone."

"What are you talking about?" Caroline asked, glancing at Bonnie. "Why would they do it to everyone? And how could they anyway?"

Enzo smiled sourly. "There are many ways. A heart grab, a cup of tea. The same bloodline."

Caroline's eyes widened in dismay. "What?"

"There are only so many vampire bloodlines, right? If they put the spell over the original vampires-"

"Oh my God," Caroline whispered, searching for her phone with a shaking hand and marching a few steps away before dialing Stefan.

"What about the cure?" Bonnie asked.

"That's what I really found out only earlier today," Enzo said with as much sincerity as Bonnie could believe. "If they have the cure, they can cast the spell over all humans."

Bonnie opened her mouth to ask another question, but then her attention was drawn to Caroline who walked back to them.

"Stefan said Klaus had told him about his meeting with Lily and then... and then he left Mystic Falls."

"Klaus?" Enzo asked, his eyebrows furrowed. "If they cast the spell over him-"

"The bloodline link no longer works like that," Bonnie said with a small sigh. "There was a witch in New Orleans who wanted to kill Klaus-" She shook her head. "It's a long story. Anyway. She came up with a spell to break the bloodline link, so even if Klaus dies, his death no longer means that all of the vampires from his bloodline die with him."

"So the spell put over Klaus would only affect him," Enzo muttered.

"But if they got to Elijah or Rebekah it'd still-"

"Bonnie, he left Mystic Falls," Caroline whispered, holding her phone in both hands, pressing it to her chin.

"Yes, I heard that," Bonnie said slowly, turning more toward Caroline and only then noticing how pale she looked.

"He left Mystic Falls without Hope."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Elena?"

Elena's head snapped up from the sink. Damon arched an eyebrow at her and she sighed in relief, giving him a faint smile.

"I just- I bit my lip- I didn't want to wake you-" Elena brushed a tissue over her mouth, tossed a handful of them into the trash bin and tried to turn the water off, but her hands were shaking so much she couldn't do it.

Damon drew her hands away from it and gathered her into his arms. "Elena, what's wrong?" He asked with a worried frown, gently pushing her hair off her cheek and tucking a few strands behind her ear.

Elena winced and then flung herself into his arms, sliding his hands around him and burying her face in his shoulder. "I can't sleep," she whispered in a muffled voice.

"What do you mean?" Damon asked with a frown. Running his fingers through her hair, he pressed a kiss to the side of her face. "Elena?"

"Every time I fall asleep he is there," she mumbled into his neck and then slowly lifted her head to look at him.

"Who?"

"Kai."

Damon blinked, his eyebrows furrowing in worry before he cupped Elena's face in his hands and gave her a faint, warm smile. "These are only nightmares."

"I don't know, they feel... real. Like he _was_ somewhere in my head. It started even before I woke up," she added anxiously after a pause.

"Elena, why didn't you tell me?" Damon asked, stroking her cheeks with his thumbs, his eyes scanning her face with utmost concern.

"It happened only once in that spell-induced sleep. But tonight it happened several times. Every time I'd fall asleep he'd be there. He said I wouldn't be able to sleep until he woke up. I know it's not possible to control one's nightmare, but it just didn't feel like a figment of my imagination. It felt like he was really saying that."

Damon seemed to consider this for a few seconds, his expression grim. "I think I have at least a temporary solution. So you could get some sleep," he captured Elena's lips in a soft kiss.

Elena smiled weakly. "The only temporary solution I can think of has little to do with sleep," she said, anchoring her hands on his shoulders and leaning into him to trail slow kisses along his jaw.

But then her forehead wrinkled in confusion when Damon presented her with a small bottle of nail polish remover.

She glanced at the glass top where he had gotten the bottle from and only then did she notice what hadn't registered with her before. That nothing in their room or their bathroom had changed. Everything was exactly how she'd left it five years ago. Her shampoo was by the bathtub, her face creams on the cabinet, her lipsticks and eye shadows scattered under the mirror, hair bands hanging on a small knob of one of the wall cabinets.

"It's as if I just walked out of here," Elena said, looking around while Damon poured a bit of the transparent liquid on a round cotton pad and proceeded to removing the vervain-tinted nail polish off her nails, his fingertips burning a little every time his skin would come into contact with the vervain.

"I'll do it by myself," Elena said quickly, the stifled sizzling sound causing her eyes to shift back to their hands.

Damon shrugged it off. "It's nothing," he said dismissively, refusing to delegate the task to her and kissing her when she tried to argue. "It's healing right away. I'm still a vampire," he added with a glimpse of tribulation in his eyes.

"Have you changed your mind about the cure?" Elena asked gently, despite being rather certain that wasn't it.

Damon threw a used cotton pad away and reached for a new one, giving her a crooked smile. "Having second thoughts already? Guess we'll have to speed up the wedding."

Elena smiled, but then pursed her lips. "I don't remember a proposal." She looked at Damon, biting back a laugh at the expression on his face.

" _I've been a vampire for a long time, Elena. And it's been a blast. But I'd give it up in a second to be your husband, your partner, the father of your kids."_

"You don't?"

"Or a ring for that matter," she shrugged and laughed when Damon tossed the last cotton pad away and pulled her into his arms.

She placed her hands on either side of his face and kissed him. Damon leaned his forehead against hers and they stood in silence for a few seconds before Damon turned on the water and they washed each other's hands, smiling at each other in the mirror.

"It's about Bonnie, isn't it," Elena said when they finished drying their hands in a towel.

Damon sighed with a grimace and Elena wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I was thinking about it too and I talked to her when you and Stefan had gone to check on your mom and Bonnie said she didn't want the cure, not under the circumstances. She didn't even want to hear about considering it."

Very slowly, Damon exhaled. "I don't know what Enzo was thinking," he murmured with a frown and then blinked. "He wanted to see me and Bonnie tonight. I completely forgot. She probably went alone or didn't go at all. Is it weird that I still kind of trust him despite what happened?"

Elena rested her forehead against his. "No, it's not weird. It's better to trust too much than too little. Even if we get hurt in the process."

"I don't know why he wanted to meet with us. And why he did what he did. Alright," Damon said after a pause, sweeping Elena into his arms and carrying her back to the bed.

"Are you going to carry me like this all the time now?" Elena asked, scooting closer toward the headboard.

"I'm tempted to," Damon admitted with a smirk, lying down and pulling Elena into his arms. "I want you to feel safe," he said under his breath, pressing his cheek to the top of her head. "And I fail at it something terrible lately."

"No, you don't," Elena protested, glancing up at him. "There are only so many villains and evil spells that can be defeated all at once," she said with a small smile, reaching out and brushing the side of his face with the backs of her fingers.

Damon's eyes were wandering around the room, a deep frown on his face not preparing Elena for what he was about to say.

"I want to be with you every day, every moment of my life. I want to take the cure with you, more than anything in the world. I want to marry you, Elena."

Elena's hand trembled on Damon's cheek and then slid to his shoulder. He looked at her.

"Will you marry me? Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" She echoed with a stifled laugh, tears flashing in her eyes.

"We'll get you a dress and wedding rings in the morning, Bonnie and Caroline can draw straws to decide which one of them will be your maid-of-honor. I'd take the cure during the ceremony. And the ceremony could take place on that small pier by the lake in the middle of nowhere," Damon spoke in a rushed, happy tone, sifting his fingers through Elena's hair and gazing into her eyes. "It's supposed to rain tomorrow," he added with a wink.

Grinning, Elena pressed a kiss to his lips. "I like it."

"Is that a yes?" Damon verified in a mockingly uncertain tone.

"It's a YES!" Elena exclaimed and laughed when he kissed her so thoroughly she could hardly catch her breath.

"But now you have to get a good night sleep," Damon said, wrapping his arms around Elena when she snuggled into him. "Close your eyes."

 _Elena opened her eyes and smiled at the sight of the sea, the white sand under the bed glittering in the sun._

" _If you can't sleep in your head, you'll sleep in mine," Damon said and she turned on her side and smiled at him, leaning into his touch when he cupped her cheek. "And tomorrow we'll figure out how to deal with your nightmares." He leaned down to kiss her. "Good night."_

" _Good night. I love you, Damon." she said with a drowsy smile, her eyes fluttering shut._

 _She felt Damon's breath ghost across her skin. "I love you, Elena."_

xxxdelenaxxx

"This looks delicious," Sarah said, watching Stefan taking an apple and cinnamon casserole out of the oven.

"It can't possibly taste better than mine," Jeremy observed, setting the table with Hope's help.

"You don't bake at all," Sarah said, wrinkling her nose.

"But I make better breakfasts," Jeremy insisted, smiling at Hope's diligence in making sure that everyone had two spoons and two forks on each side of their plate.

"I wouldn't necessarily call turning a coffee maker on 'making a breakfast', but OK, let's not start a day off by arguing," she said, exchanging amused looks with Stefan.

"Is Caroline coming?" Jeremy asked, glancing around the table.

"Is my Dad coming?" Hope inquired, grabbing a handful of napkins and folding each of them in half.

Stefan's eyebrows knitted in a frown. "He's got something important to do. He'll stop by... later."

Hope seemed to effortlessly accept the explanation, focused on her task. Jeremy placed a fruit bowl on the table and then walked up to Stefan and Sarah.

"Are you sure that they cast that spell over Klaus?" Jeremy asked in a low voice.

Stefan sighed. "They might've slipped it in a tea. Enzo told Caroline and Bonnie that the spell could be transferred like that. My mother served me some tea when I was there. But I didn't drink it. Maybe Klaus did. There's no other rational explanation as to why he'd just leave Hope behind. Yesterday when he said he was going back to New Orleans I asked him about Hope and he didn't seem to understand what I was talking about. Like he didn't care at all."

"But love isn't the only feeling in the world," Sarah observed quietly, wrapping her arms around herself and glancing at Hope who was busy placing each spoon on a napkin and then rolling it over so the spoon was hidden inside the napkin. "It's not like a humanity switch that turns off all emotions."

"You're right, but in case of Klaus, I'd say love was the only positive feeling he never was quite able to quit. So without it..." Stefan trailed off at the sound of a door bell.

"I'll go get it," Jeremy said, wondering if it could be Bonnie and not sure if he was hoping to see her or just the opposite.

They hadn't even exchanged a word yesterday. Hadn't even made an eye-contact, in fact.

"I spy... Stefan feeling a) happy, b) sad, c) guilty, d) like taunting Elena and I that when we move out we'll starve," Damon said, marching into the kitchen with a smile that vanished at the sight of Sarah.

"It's not my fault I'm the only person in the family who can cook," Stefan said, hoping to keep the mood from becoming gloomy, but not really succeeding.

Sarah was standing straight and stiff, staring into the distance with a grim expression on her face.

"I think you should talk," Stefan said, looking between Damon and Sarah.

Sarah shook her head. "No, I don't want to."

"If there was anything-" Damon started.

"But there isn't," Sarah cut him off, her eyes darting to him. "There is nothing you can do. You can't bring my parents back."

The sound of toasts jumping out of the toaster broke the silence that fell, followed by the sound of Jeremy's raised voice.

Damon and Stefan exchanged a look and then rushed to the living room where Jeremy seemed to have failed at not letting Lily come in.

He opened his mouth to explain, but Damon just shook his head, so sending a glare Lily's way, Jeremy headed back to the kitchen.

"Your brother asked me for help, so I decided to come," Lily said, looking at Damon who glanced at Stefan and then turned his irritated gaze back to Lily.

"I don't need you help," Damon said brusquely.

Lily's piercing gaze suddenly acquired a glint of bafflement as her eyes flickered to the person who ran merrily into the room only to stop dead in her tracks at the sight she didn't expect.

"I see you don't," Lily said tonelessly and both Damon and Stefan turned their heads to see what she was looking at.

Damon's eyes locked with Elena's and he hoped she'd leave the room immediately and that was also Elena's first instinct, but then she drew a breath and instead of backing off marched toward Lily.

"Good morning," she said, clasping Damon's hand in hers. "I think we should just forget about the past and start anew," she blurted out, initially planning on saying something more vague, but it was really difficult to come up with a subtle way of offering truce to someone who had intended to irreversibly ruin her life. She also couldn't help feeling so happy that in that moment anything and everything felt possible.

"I second that," Stefan said on an impulse, because there seemed to be nothing better to say. He kept his eyes fixed at Lily and didn't need to look at Damon to imagine an obvious 'are you both insane' look on his face.

"I have a better idea," Damon said, playfully squeezing Elena's hand in response to her squeezing his over and over again. "Why don't you turn around and follow that pretty red carpet all the way to the door."

"Just give me the cure and you'll never see me again," Lily said, not a muscle in her face moving.

Elena felt her heart fall, but then she told herself that this couldn't possibly end like this. Lily was Damon's mother and whatever had happened to her, she couldn't just stop being that person who used to hold such a revered place in Damon's heart and memories. Deep inside, she still must be that person.

"We can't give you the cure," Elena spoke in a voice that made all the warning lights in Damon's mind go off, because he knew that voice too well.

" _You and I, we have something. An understanding."_

Only in case of Lily he was absolutely certain Elena's vehement faith in everyone's inherent goodness wasn't the right approach.

"Please," Elena smiled, feeling the tears burn the corners of her eyes, because it was going to work. It had to work. It couldn't possibly not work. She'd break on through to her.

"Elena-" Damon tried and even Stefan, having noticed the lack of any kind of change in Lily's glassy eyes began doubting reasoning with her made much sense.

"We can't give you the cure, because Damon's going to take it," Elena said, reaching out and catching Lily off guard by grabbing her hand, her other hand still clasped in Damon's.

Lily shuddered at the touch, but her eyes remained distant, as if she was hearing the words without really grasping their meaning.

"We want to be human together. Have a family," Elena whispered, a feverish smile flickering across her face.

She kept reassuring herself that Lily's indifferent expression was just a mask. She was afraid of showing her emotions, but they were still there. They had to be.

She wasn't trying to free her hand and it was a good sign, Elena thought, her smile brightening, a joyful feeling glimmering inside her as she was waiting for Lily to say something that would prove to her that it was the best decision to confide in her, to take that leap of trust and hopefully bring Lily back into the family-

But then Elena's hopeful feelings shattered inside her with an almost audible grating noise.

"I need the cure," Lily said in a low, firm voice, with a bizarre hint of apology in it. "And I think you'll give it to me yourself." She let go of Elena's hand, but Elena hardly noticed it, too confused by Lily's terrifyingly calm demeanor. "Because... I don't think he'll even want it anymore."

With a sudden movement of her hand, Lily shoved both Elena and Stefan to the ground and then jammed her hand into Damon's chest, getting hold of his heart.

With a scream catching in her throat, Elena jumped back to her feet, trying to push Lily away, frightened that she was going to rip Damon's heart out of his chest.

But Lily almost immediately withdrew her hand which turned out to be empty, except for a red glow that seemed to ripple through her before disappearing in barely perceptible bursts, like fading fireworks seen from the distance.

Damon crashed to the ground, straight into Elena's arms and when she looked up, Lily was already gone.

"Damon," Elena whispered through her tears, holding him and caressing his face.

Stefan knelt next to them, unable to catch his breath at the thought that Lily might've cast a sleeping spell over Damon, the same spell that-

But then Damon opened his eyes and both Elena and Stefan sighed in relief.

"What happened?" Jeremy and Sarah came running into the room, Hope following right behind them despite being asked to hide in the kitchen.

"Damon," Elena kissed him and smiled, expecting a grumpy one-liner, but instead Damon brushed her hands off his face and sat up.

"Are you OK?" Elena asked uncertainly, her hands instinctively flying to his face again.

Damon looked at her and the look in his eyes made her pause. It reminded her of something she had barely remembered anymore.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Elena," Damon said dismissively and Elena froze.

It wasn't the expression in his eyes or even the fact that he was leaning away from her touch. It was the way in which he said her name that made her feel like her heart stopped beating, like the entire world around her quietly came to a standstill.

He didn't say it sharply or angrily. He said it casually.

As if it was just a name.

Just a name that didn't mean to him anything more than any other word.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Thank you **so much** for all the gorgeous reviews! :]:]:]

 **Chapter 7**

It was such a relief to finally escape to his room, away from everyone trying to tell him that there was something wrong with him. That, and Elena looking as if she was about to burst into tears, which made him feel very uncomfortable and a little annoyed, because he did feel sorry for her, but just what he was supposed to do about her tears?

First of all, he didn't feel there was anything wrong with him at all. His thoughts were a little hazy, he was willing to admit that, but it wasn't much worse than an average hangover and he certainly didn't need to be told all those irritating things about not feeling what he was supposed to be feeling. What kind of concept was that anyway? He wasn't _supposed to_ feel anything. He either felt something or he didn't.

Having closed the door behind him and taking a few steps across the room, Damon picked up a skimpy nightgown from the bed.

And right now he felt... pretty much nothing. For some reason. At least not anything they were implying.

He folded Elena's nightdress and put it away. How disorderly this room had become. No wonder he felt such a strange, strong aversion at the idea of thinking about the past.

Of course if he was being perfectly honest with himself, there was something baffling about the fact that he couldn't quite place the reason for not caring about being with Elena anymore. Because he couldn't help remembering that there was a time when he'd wanted that very much. Only now he couldn't remember, or rather... couldn't _understand_ why he'd wanted that? Nothing came to mind when he was trying to think about it.

Damon grimaced when he almost tripped over Elena's white shoes on the floor. And not even one pair. Four different pairs of white shoes! That's why he'd never been living with any woman under one roof. Until now, apparently. Why would she at once take out all of her white shoes? He felt like he knew... but he didn't really want to think about it. His head was beginning to hurt from the effort whenever he tried to dwell on anything related to Elena or his brother or his mother...

His mother. He frowned, walking into the bathroom. She'd done something to him. The memory flashed through his head and it kind of made sense in the context of what everyone was saying... But he _really_ didn't want to think about it.

He needed a plan, Damon thought, absently shoving all the lipsticks, eye shadows and other superfluous items off the cabinet into one of the drawers. Firstly, Elena had to move out of his room, so he could have some peace. Secondly, he needed a drink somewhere far, far away from everyone here.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, Damon browsed through the contacts in his phone: 1 Elena, Baby Bro In-Law, Barbie Mayor, Bon-Bon, Enzo, Donovan, Least Annoying Original, Liz (why hadn't he deleted this number yet?), Meredith the 49th, Stefan, Ric the Eraser, The Evil Guy. Unfortunately, no one from this list qualified for a stress-free date.

The phone buzzed in his hand and Damon squinted at the name that appeared on the screen.

But maybe someone to just take a drink with would do.

xxxdelenaxxx

"What do you mean you're at the airport?" Stefan asked, perplexed by Caroline's answer. "Why?"

"Why? What do you mean why?" Caroline asked, grumbling under her breath when kicking one of the back wheels of her carry-on didn't make it spin. "It's stuck."

Stefan's frown deepened in confusion. "What is stuck?"

"Nothing," Caroline replied with a grimace. "I just woke up this morning and realized that someone's got to talk to Klaus."

There was a pause. "Yes, that's why we called Elijah yesterday," Stefan said evenly.

"Yes, we did. And we had a riveting conversation with his voice mail," Caroline huffed, searching her purse for... her phone. She rolled her eyes at herself. "Don't you think that hardly counts?"

"We let him know what happened and I'm sure he'll come to pick up Hope as soon as he gets the message," Stefan said matter-of-factly, walking back into the living room where Bonnie was comforting Elena, repeating for the tenth time that everything was going to be OK.

" _Or_ maybe his plane will crash and he'll never make it here!" Caroline said so loudly that a few people in line turned around to look at her.

"I'm sure he'd appreciate your concern, but I'd say there's a big chance his plane won't crash," Stefan said, wondering if he'd find the conversation amusing if he wasn't currently preoccupied with worrying about his brother. But no, after a moment of consideration he was rather certain he'd find Caroline chasing after Klaus irritating regardless of the circumstances. "Not to mention that you can't know if Klaus really went back to New Orleans."

Having her phone squeezed in between her cheek and her shoulder, Caroline lifted her luggage onto the roller conveyor. "I've got to start somewhere."

"No, Caroline, you don't have to do anything. Klaus is not your problem."

"And Damon is?" Caroline blurted out, busy taking her shoes off and only after saying the words regretting them immediately. "That's not what I-"

"No, it's fine. Is Bonnie your problem? Because she wants to talk to you," Stefan said, a hint of irritation all too clear in his voice.

He handed his phone to Bonnie.

Caroline froze with one shoe in her hand, the other one already on its way to be screened. She wasn't used to Stefan being openly upset and so she wasn't sure what to make of it.

"So what's your plan for saving Klaus? A true love's kiss?"

"Ugh, _Elena_! Get the phone away from that _alien_ who looks like Bonnie!" Caroline yelled into her phone, before dropping it into a plastic tub and quickly walking through the security to pick up her phone on the other side.

Bonnie shrugged and handed the phone over to Elena.

"She's insufferable lately!" Caroline exclaimed after collecting her things and putting her shoes back on.

"I now have vampire hearing, just so you know," Bonnie said, leaning toward Elena who was holding the phone near her ear.

"She used to be so nice!" Caroline continued, ignoring Bonnie's interjection. "And I thought it was just becoming a vampire that's changed her, but you know what, I actually think it started earlier. It started after she came back from the dead. Being stuck with Damon in a prison world for three months has ruined her personality, I'm telling you."

"That's an extremely sensitive thing to say right now," Bonnie pointed out with a sigh, drawing her legs up onto the couch. "And I've never been 'so nice,'" she added with a grimace after a moment of consideration. "Where did that come from? Unless you're comparing me to you. Then yes, on a scale from Caroline to Elena, I'm probably somewhere closer to Elena."

"OK, I think we'll call you later-" Elena started, beginning to feel like the conversation was going nowhere, but then Caroline interrupted her.

Parking her carry-on next to a row of chairs, Caroline sat on the edge of one of them and propping her elbows on her knees she said in a suddenly serious, gentle but determined voice.

"Listen, Elena. I know it's hard for you to imagine it right now, but once upon a time, you didn't love him and he didn't love you, so all you have to do right now is just start from there once again."

Elena drew a breath. She wanted to believe that, but... "He said he saw a future with me the moment he saw me for the first time," she said shakily, but then jolted upright at the complete change in Caroline's tone that somehow, oddly enough, seemed to revitalize her.

"Give me a break, Elena," Caroline groaned. "They always say stuff like that! I have to go. But please, don't worry," she added in a calmer tone. "I'm sure that even if they cut out his heart and his brain, you could still make him fall for you. Talk to you later, bye!"

"That was probably intended to make you feel better," Bonnie said, smiling weakly at the nonplussed expression on Elena's face. But then her smile turned into a frown. "And where are _you_ going?" She asked, her eyes darting away from Elena.

Elena looked up and Stefan turned around, meeting Damon's utterly unconcerned gaze that didn't seem to linger on anyone long enough to even notice their concern.

"Out," Damon said with a brief, artificial smile, heading for the door.

Elena jumped to her feet and rushed after him.

There had to be a way to undo this spell, she told herself, strengthening her resolve. There had to me, she thought, running outside. Maybe... maybe if she found a signature moment, like the one that Alaric had used to compel her memories away. If she found such a signature moment for Damon, the moment when he'd realized that he loved her... Maybe such a memory could trigger something? Maybe it could be a start?

It felt so bittersweet not to know what that moment was. She wondered why she'd never asked him. Perhaps it was because love always felt eternal, like it had no beginning and no end. It had taken her so much effort to remember, to admit to herself what that signature moment for her was, so maybe it was the same for Damon. Maybe he wouldn't have even been able to tell her had she asked him. Or maybe he knew exactly. But right now it was up to her to discover it, to remember for them both.

"What are you doing?" Damon asked with a grimace when Elena ran in front of his car, forcing him to stop abruptly, tires screeching against the road.

"If you're going somewhere..." Elena said with a faint smile, getting into the car and making herself comfortable in the passenger seat. "I want to go with you."

She reached out for his hand but he moved it before she could touch it.

"Why?"

"Because I love you. Because I spent the last five years away from you," Elena said quietly, her hand lingering in the air for another second before she let it fall onto her lap.

Damon frowned, trying to understand why her words bothered him so much. Was it because it was irritating that she was bringing up something that was of no interest to him? Or because... because...

"Whatever we have... had... I don't think it's working. I don't think we can be together anymore," he said, aiming for a matter-of-fact tone of voice, but somehow it seemed like she wasn't taking it seriously enough. "I don't... I don't love you," he said, not wishing to hurt her, but just hoping that being honest with her would solve this strange situation.

Oddly enough, however, even though he saw tears well up in her eyes, she seemed to quickly overcome them and blinking them back, to his further stupefaction, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him.

For a few heartbeats, the afternoon landscape morphed into a dark, dark forest. Her arms had been wrapped around him, just like they were right now, but he hadn't been hugging her back, just like he wasn't right now. And yet... and yet...

But then the unyielding pressure of not wanting to think about any of that pushed the memory away.

"We'll survive this. We always survive," Elena whispered into his ear.

Damon pulled away, trying to disentangle himself from her embrace. "I'm sorry, but I just don't _feel_ anything for you," he said, confused by her undeterred attitude.

"But it's a spell, it's not real," Elena pleaded, cupping his face in her hands.

He brushed her hands off. "I know how I feel, Elena."

"No, you don't. Not right now."

He smiled sourly, fighting an urge to roll his eyes.

"It's a spell-" Elena trailed off, suddenly hit by a thought. "That doesn't work on humans!" Her eyes brightened up at the realization. "If you took the cure, maybe it'd go away!"

Damon blinked, the frown on his face deepening. "Why would I want to take the cure?" He asked, leaning away from her and for the first time entertaining the thought that maybe there was something seriously wrong with her.

Tears flashed in Elena's eyes, but she mustered a small, brave smile. "You wanted to take it today. You must remember that," she said softly.

The memory of all those white shoes scattered on the floor flickered through his head, but he couldn't draw any conclusions from the image without feeling his mind becoming all hazy, trains of thought snapping like overworked strings.

"I don't know, maybe," he said dismissively. "Doesn't matter. I don't want to take it anymore. Now could you kindly get out of my car?"

"It's our car," Elena said a little impatiently, drawing the second set of keys out of her pocket, her name engraved on the key.

She gave Damon a questioningly triumphant look that he ignored.

"Fine. But don't blame me if you won't be having fun on this trip," he muttered, starting the engine.

xxxdelenaxxx

He really hoped that Enzo would prove an entertaining company, or at least less whiny than some other people, but to his unpleasant surprise, after a few sentences he was all Team Elena on everything.

"It's been only an hour and I'm already fed up with hearing about nothing else but this 'spell'," Damon grunted, looking between Elena and Enzo. "So what if it's a spell? I feel _amazing_."

"I think I've heard that somewhere before," Elena mumbled, poking the slice of lemon in her water with a red straw.

"I'm actually willing to cut him some slack, since it's technically your fault," Enzo said, receiving a stern look from Elena. "The whole Damon-must-die-so-you-could-wake-up spiel should've given you a clue Lily was a lost cause."

Elena glanced at Damon, but none of what they'd been saying seemed to have much effect on him. He seemed distracted, his eyes wandering around the space around them.

"Klaus, on the other hand," Enzo snorted. "How dumb do you have to be to drink a tea served by murderous undead witches?"

"I'd say almost as dumb as you have to be to actually volunteer to be subjected to that spell," Elena retorted sourly.

Enzo raised his eyebrows, watching her pretty much destroy the poor lemon with her straw while she was watching Damon exchange winks with a blonde three tables away.

"Hey, want a piece of good advice?" Enzo asked, waving his hand at Elena, because her attention seemed impossible to be drawn to him otherwise. "Get out of Lily's sight for the time being. Take the oblivious guy and the hybrid kid and go. Your blood is the cure and Lily's friends may want to absorb whatever magic the child has."

"Running away is never-"

"It's not running away," Enzo interrupted her gruffly. "It's regrouping and strategizing."

Elena seemed to consider this for a second. "How do you fight it?" She asked after a pause, grabbing Damon's arm when he tried to stand up.

"What do you mean?" Enzo asked, glancing at Damon who tried to remove Elena's hand off his forearm, one finger at a time, but whenever he'd succeed in taking one finger off, the others would stick right back on.

"You're aware of everything. Damon... it seems like something is not right with his memory," Elena whispered through her teeth, grasping Damon's other hand.

"You'd know," Enzo quipped, but then raised his hands in an apologetic gesture when the expression on Elena's face made it clear she didn't find the allusion amusing in the slightest.

"Talking about me as if I weren't here seems a little rude, don't you think?" Damon said, wishing to at least finish his drink, but with his hands bizarrely trapped in between Elena's it wasn't even an option.

"This spell isn't like a cloak thrown over someone's feelings. It's like a virus trying to destroy them. Memories are a threat to it, so it may be distorting your memories or it may be making you feel like you don't want to remember."

"Or maybe I just really don't want to remember?" Damon argued, giving Elena a narrowed-eyed look and leaning down to take a sip from her glass, because only her drink had a straw.

He expected an annoyed look from her, but instead a smile flitted across her face and he suddenly realized he didn't mind her skin on his all that much.

Elena turned to Enzo who went on about that non-existent problem with the spell while Damon continued looking at Elena's profile, slowly taking in all the details of her face.

Maybe trying to break up with her was too hasty a decision? He smirked to himself. If she insisted on being his girlfriend, he could give her a chance.

xxxdelenaxxx

Not that she seemed particularly desperate to take it.

Damon glared in the direction of the bathroom, more than a little baffled when Elena had adamantly refused his idea to bathe together. Her inconsistency was infuriating.

She had spent an entire day stalking him, ruining his meeting with Enzo, ruining all of his potential dates by clinging onto his arm as if her life depended on it, wasting his time by dragging him onto some lake-side clearing in the middle of nowhere, babbling about the weather and trying to dance with him in the middle of an empty road. But then when they were finally indoors and he wanted to do something that, unlike everything she'd been doing all day, made sense, she was pushing him away.

His train of thought was interrupted by the realization that he didn't hear the water running, which meant Elena must've stepped out of the shower.

Soundlessly rising off the bed, Damon walked toward the bathroom and leaning against the entrance frame watched Elena wrap a towel around herself.

She spared him a fleeting glance, but didn't say anything, proceeding to drying her hair.

Her behavior was growing even more confusing and ridiculous by the minute. Damon tilted his head to the side, not sure if he even needed enhanced vampire senses to hear her uneven breathing and quickened heartbeat.

"Are you coming to bed?" He asked in a no-nonsense tone.

Elena's movements stilled for a second, but then she reached out for a brush, her tone casual. "Yes, I'm going to read and then I'm going to sleep."

She shuddered inwardly at the latter part, wondering if Damon cared to remember anything about her nightmares.

"You mean we're not going to do anything?" Damon sounded so openly petulant that it brightened Elena's mood a little. "I thought you said you wanted to be my girlfriend?"

"I _am_ your girlfriend."

"Then act like one," Damon retorted and Elena abruptly turned toward him, her eyes sparkling with defiance.

Perhaps Caroline was right. They should start all the way from the beginning and chronologically it was perhaps time for a slap.

"Do you really think I'm going to sleep with you after you plain told me you didn't love me?"

The brush in Elena's hand looked almost like a weapon and yet Damon couldn't help finding it utterly adorable how she was trying to look threatening wrapped in a towel, with wet strands of hair adoring her face, her beautiful brown eyes ablaze.

"I was being honest," Damon said with a shrug, wondering if she was wearing any vervain right now. It didn't look like she was, so instead of engaging in a pointless conversation he could make her do _anything_. The memory of her lips on his skin sent a rush of heat through his body. "I could compel you to be more obliging."

Warning her was obviously counterproductive, but at least he was gratified by an indignant expression on her face. Then again, she looked as hot upset as when she was being all nice and sweet, he'd give her that.

Elena put the brush away and walked up to him. "So do it," she said, thrusting up her chin.

She was challenging him him, although it wasn't entirely clear to him if she was counting on him to back off or just the opposite.

"Nah." He smirked, lifting his hand to brush a drop of water off Elena's lips. He licked it off his thumb while holding her gaze. "It's more fun doing it the old-fashioned way."

Slowly, he unbuttoned his shirt and then undressed completely in front of her before heading into the shower, making sure for his skin to brush against hers when he walked past her.

It took Elena a moment to collect her senses before she scurried out of the bathroom.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Why so many straps?" Jeremy thought out loud, confused, the installation of a car seat proving more difficult than the manual seemed to suggest.

"I'm sure they didn't add some extra ones just for the kicks," Sarah said, leaning over the side of the camaro to make sure the car's seat belt was threaded through the correct slots.

Jeremy shot her a grin that turned into a thoughtful expression when Bonnie's car pulled into the driveway.

Sarah gave him an encouraging look, having told him more than once that he should talk to Bonnie and get rid of that strange tension between them.

"Wrecking Damon's car?" Bonnie asked, getting out of the car after taking an extra second to brace herself for the encounter and sound as lighthearted as possible. "Good choice for a revenge."

"Actually, we're just installing a car seat for Hope," Sarah said conversationally, not avoiding the eye-contact with her and as difficult as it felt, Bonnie decided to try doing the same.

"Stefan said they need to leave at dawn. Any idea why?" Jeremy asked and unlike in case of Sarah, Bonnie found his attempts at sounding friendly and casual slightly aggravating.

"He said he wanted to talk to Lily tomorrow. Maybe he wants to do that after Damon, Elena and Hope leave," Bonnie offered, already heading toward the house.

"Bonnie, wait," Jeremy hurried after her. "Do we really need to be doing this whole awkward exes thing?" He asked with a weak smile when she turned around.

Bonnie looked at him, his sudden proximity somehow increasing her aggravation. "I don't know," she said with a shrug, telling herself that technically she was probably the one more responsible for that conversation never taking place, but her new vampire view on life made justice more of a subjective phenomenon. "I'll tell you when we break up," she said, turning on her heels and walking into the house.

xxxdelenaxxx

What a ridiculous situation, Elena thought, bustling around the room and nervously shaking her head at herself. What was she thinking? That she could out-seduce him? It wasn't as if he really didn't love her anyway. He only thought he didn't, so maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to just give in and start from there. That way she could keep an eye on him. They'd be together and he wouldn't be trying to run away from her.

Rummaging through a drawer, Elena pulled out a white nightdress and put it on. So much for the wedding, she thought sadly, sighing at the color.

But of course that was just her trying to find an excuse to give in. The spell was making him feel like he didn't love her and if he thought he didn't love her, what was stopping him from vanishing the next morning and finding himself a new girlfriend?

Maybe if she proved very skilled in bed he wouldn't. Elena grabbed a book from the nightstand and tucked herself into the bed, stifling a chuckle. She never quite knew what it meant, but she could perhaps conduct a research. It'd surely make one heck of a family anecdote one day.

Collecting all the pillows from the bed, Elena stacked them behind her back, leaning comfortable against them.

She opened the book and started to read, although at some point she caught herself reading the same sentence over and over again, just waiting for Damon to finish his shower.

When he did, she made sure to keep her eyes glued to the page, because she was sure he'd walk into the room wearing nothing at all and there was only so much self-control she possessed.

Sure enough, not only did Damon stroll into the room naked, but he also didn't bother finding himself anything to wear and simply slipped under the bed cover next to her.

"Do you really need all the four pillows?" He asked, squinting.

Elena muttered something in a non-committal confirmation, turning the page.

Lying on his side, Damon propped his head on his elbow and looked at Elena, waiting for her to look at him, but she seemed determined to keep reading. Even when he draped his leg over hers she didn't react, even though her mouth twitched and her breath hitched, so he could tell she noticed.

"What is the book about?" He asked, craning his neck to look at the cover.

"It's a memoir of an orthopedic surgeon," Elena replied tersely.

Damon groaned under his breath and reached out, catching a lock of her hair and twirling it around his finger. "You're thinking about going back to college?"

The question was simple enough, his voice still laced with that unbearable hint of indifference, but at the same time it was him, he was here, she was here, they were here together after a five-year-long separation and it wasn't possible not to find some comfort in it.

"Rather about starting anew," Elena said and after a moment of hesitation she closed her book and caught Damon off guard by giving him back two pillows and leaning on her side to face him. "I didn't even finish my first year."

Her movement left his hand suspended in the air, but after a few seconds he resumed twirling her hair and sifting through them with his fingers. There was something calming about doing it, although he couldn't pinpoint what exactly and why.

"But maybe you wouldn't need to retake some of the exams."

"But I want to retake all of them," Elena said quietly. "I want to be sure I know and remember everything."

Damon's mouth quirked into a small, lop-sided smile. "You're going to be the best doctor."

"If you say so, I'm going to believe it," Elena whispered with a soft smile and for a moment he thought she was going to kiss him, but she rolled over onto her other side away from him instead and turned off the lamp on the nightstand. "Good night, Damon."

He didn't move and remained propped up on his elbow, his gaze fixed on the back of Elena's head.

Her brown hair looked darker against the back of her white nightdress, but the strands illuminated by the moonlight streaming through an open window looked almost silver.

He vaguely recalled something about her nightmares... And even though he felt like forgetting about it as soon as the thought crossed his mind, his stubborn streak made him focus on a twinge of sadness that the memory evoked and so his hand glided through her hair and onto her waist until it settled over her hand.

He could feel her tremble under his touch and he didn't know how, but he thought he knew that it was only then that she closed her eyes.

"Good night, Elena."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Yesterday was full moon?" Hope looked so distraught by what Sarah had hoped would be a nice morning conversation starter that she couldn't be more grateful for Elena to appear downstairs so early.

"We have a floating mattress, but we'll have to get shovels, rakes and molds when we get there," Elena said with a smile that turned into a concerned frown at the expression on Hope's face.

"Yesterday was full moon! And I didn't see my Mom! I always go to see my Mom on the full moon!" Hope explained before Elena or Sarah had a chance to ask what was wrong.

"I'm so sorry." Elena said, inwardly scolding herself for forgetting about it.

Klaus had explained to Caroline how the curse cast over Hayley and other werewolves worked. Not that they knew where to look for Hayley and without being able to get hold of Klaus or Elijah it wouldn't be possible to arrange for Hayley and Hope to meet, but still. They should've at least tried. Maybe they were always meeting in the same spot? If so, maybe Hope even knew where it was? It just didn't cross anyone's mind to worry about the full moon on top of other things. Elena, for one, hadn't even noticed it was full moon last night.

"Maybe..." Sarah started, but trailed off, not really knowing what to say.

"But you did see your mom yesterday," Damon said, drawing everyone's attention to him.

He propped his hand on one of the suitcases he'd carried from upstairs and gave Elena a half-hearted glare. She smiled, very glad that after grumbling for half an hour about not going anywhere, especially not to a beach, especially not today, especially not as a babysitter, he promptly appeared downstairs anyway.

"No, I didn't," Hope protested getting very close to stomping her foot and Elena was about to intervene, but Damon distracted her by putting swimming goggles over her head.

"Yes, you did. But yesterday was Forgetful Full Moon, that's why you don't remember it."

Sarah raised her eyebrows in a dubious expression, but to her surprise Hope's mood seemed to immediately change from sad and perturbed to curious and intrigued.

"Forgetful Full Moon?" She echoed, blinking.

Elena freed herself from the goggles and exchanged uncertain looks with Sarah before they focused on looking between Damon and Hope.

"Yeah, you mean you didn't know that?" Damon asked, giving her an odd look, before taking the floating mattress from under Elena's arm, grabbing both pieces of luggage and heading out of the house.

Hope wrinkled her nose, at first confused, then dismayed, finally in denial about not knowing anything about the Forgetful Full Moon.

"I think I knew, I just forgot," she allowed with a frown, grabbing her very small pink carry-on and running after Damon.

"We'll be in touch," Elena said, giving Sarah a small smile before following them.

When she walked outside, Damon was placing the luggage in the trunk while Hope listened with her mouth agape to the long list of different full moons, each of them with their own, special rules.

"What does the Swooping Full Moon do?" She inquired, tiptoeing after Damon when he closed the trunk.

He picked her off the ground and lowered her into her car seat.

"On the Swooping Full Moon nights the moon is hanging so low you can actually touch it," Damon explained matter-of-factly, fastening all the car seat clasps with such dexterity that Elena made a mental note to tease him about it later.

"I want to touch the moon! When is the next Swooping Full Moon going to be?"

"Well, it's a very rare phenomenon. The last one happened seven hundred years ago."

Hope wailed in disappointment, but somehow it didn't diminish her overall enthusiastic interest in different kinds of full moons.

Damon produced the car keys out of his pocked, but as soon as he opened the car's door, the keys were snatched out of his hand.

"I'm driving," Elena announced cheerfully, promptly jumping into the driver's seat.

"What? No. Why?" Damon asked with a grimace.

"I was asleep for five years. I missed it," Elena replied with a shrug, her eyes sparkling in the sunlight, her lips impossible not to stare at.

Damon's frown deepened as he tried to remember why exactly he had just let her sleep last night.

"And what am I going to do?" He asked grumpily, reluctantly getting into the passenger's seat.

"I have three Barbie books in my backpack," Hope offered. "You can read the Barbie and The Diamond Castle one, but don't tell me how it ends, because I haven't read it yet."

Elena turned on the engine which helped to muffle her laughter a little. To her further exhilaration, Damon managed to keep a poker face.

"Thanks, but I've read that one," he said, resting his arm on the side of the car, his eyes following Elena's every movement.

"Have you read Barbie of Swan Lake?"

"Yep."

"Barbie and the Secret Door?"

"Of course."

"Barbie and the Three Musketeers?"

"Twice."

"Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses?"

"Cover to cover."

Hope was clearly impressed. Elena was chortling under her breath and Damon couldn't tear his gaze away from her smiling face.

"Hopefully we'll get there before winter," he quipped, tapping his fingers on the car door.

Elena gave him a narrowed-eyed look and then pressed the accelerator so hard that Damon glanced at the speedometer to see if the arrow was still there.

He looked away with a smile. Maybe this trip was going to be fun, after all.

xxxdelenaxxx

Stefan knocked on the door, taking two steps back and one step forward. He really didn't like doing it. But he'd tried a different approach. Elena had tried a different approach. And even just taking his mother's friends' victim count into consideration, it was probably more of a community service than anything else.

At least that's what Bonnie had said. Granted, there was a difference between Bonnie right now and Bonnie he'd met in high school several years ago, but he wasn't going to dwell too much on the fact how much all of them had changed, especially that he believed they had changed for the better... on the most part.

The door opened and one of Lily's witchpire companions appeared in the doorway.

Then there was also the fact that Klaus would've probably approved of this approach, which was disturbing enough, but Stefan wasn't going to dwell too much on that either.

"Hi, could you pass a message to my mother?" Stefan asked in a mockingly casual voice, pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket. "It says: Hi Mom. Give me a ring in case you're ready to talk about reversing that irreversible spell and other such things. Cordially, S." Stefan read the note and with a thin smile handed it to the man.

Wordlessly, the man read the note for himself and shifted his eyes to Stefan. "I'll tell her," he said, trying to give the note back to Stefan who shook his head.

"Oh no, I'm afraid the written version is necessary," Stefan said with another thin smile and then in a seemingly one, smooth movement ripped the man's heart out of his chest and his head off his neck.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Thank you SO SO SO MUCH for all the amazing reviews! :):):)

A warning for hard-core Stefan/Caroline shippers: please keep calm and carry on... (even though I can't promise things will get better... lol)

In other news, guess who is back! Someone I'm sure everyone has missed ;)

 **Chapter 8**

It was already dusk when they arrived in a small town by the sea. The driving alone wouldn't have taken more than five hours, but all the stops, including such vital ones like Build-a-Bear, bumper cars or Cupcake Festival, caused the five hours stretch into twelve. The waste of time, however, was nothing compared to the mess. One look over the camaro was enough for Damon to tell that chocolate sprinkles and crayons were _everywhere._ He sighed.

Hope was fast asleep, her head resting on her Harley-Davidson Bear that Damon was quite proud he'd managed to pitch to her over a Frozen one.

"Maybe I'll go check us in, so we could go straight to the condo," Elena suggested, looking into her purse.

She chuckled when her search for an ID was interrupted by a Surgeon Bear nuzzling her neck.

"Stop harassing him."

Elena grabbed the Bear that Damon had surprised her with once they had already been out of the shop. She hadn't even noticed when he'd gotten it for her.

"I'm harassing you not him," Damon replied, quickly leaning in, but Elena's reflexes were faster and his lips collided with her cheek.

He would've considered it a miss if he didn't hear her gasp.

"How stubborn you are," he muttered against her skin before looking up at her. "Why can't we skip this whole... love thing," he grimaced, "and just have some fun?" He gave her what he hoped was an ultimately irresistible crooked smile.

"I'm having fun," Elena said, straightening her Bear's scrubs. "Aren't you?" She made her Bear ruffle Damon's hair before she turned around and headed for the lobby, smiling to herself.

xxxdelenaxxx

Considering what he knew about Giuseppe Salvatore, Damon's seemingly innate sense of humor was the world's greatest mystery, Enzo decided, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the wall after Lily hadn't even smiled when upon entering the room he'd said that he'd always liked Astor least.

Lily was sitting in an armchair with her eyes fixed on Astor's body lying in a white sheet on the floor, his head and his heart on either side of him.

Biting back a comment that perhaps they should put the head closer to the neck, Enzo cleared his throat and settled for a more casual conversation starter succinctly informing Lily about the link between Klaus and the vampires from his bloodline having been severed. She accepted the news in silence that he could never guess if it signified resignation, astonishment, indifference or rage.

"Do we have a suspect?" Enzo asked, hoping he didn't sound too ludicrous while trying too hard to sound serious.

Without a word, Lily handed him a crumbled, heavily blood-stained piece of paper that she was holding in her hand.

"I still don't like him, but he's coming around," Enzo said with a brief smile that met with deafening silence. He sighed and put Stefan's note down on the coffee table. "And I can't help but notice that you seem surprised."

Lily's eyes shifted to him and his good mood faltered a little. He was yet to figure out why she cared so much about her witchpire family despite having no feelings whatsoever, her gaze fearless and unforgiving.

"Is it something that you expected?" She asked in a blank, hard voice.

Enzo snarled mirthlessly. "And what did you expect allowing that lunatic link Elena's sleep to Damon's life? Casting that spell on Damon? Demanding the cure? Settling down in this town? You really thought they wouldn't put up a fight?"

He sat down on the couch next to her, glancing absently around the room. Yet another prison cell, that house, an erroneous stop in his neverending search for home.

"I didn't think they'd be thoughtless enough," Lily said slowly. "Then again..." She paused and rose to her feet. "You've been with us for five years and that hasn't made you reconsider a betrayal."

"Betrayal?" Enzo echoed immediately, unfazed. "I thought there was no such thing for people who didn't feel love," he said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Not to mention that grabbing a drink with an old friend can hardly be considered a betrayal. I also don't recall promising that I'd never talk to anyone or do anything without an explicit permission. What about that freedom that was supposed to be the greatest gain of not loving anyone?"

"And yet you're desperate to find a way to undo the spell," Lily said, not looking at him, her eyes fixed on Astor's motionless shape for a few more moments during which Enzo didn't say anything. At last she turned toward him. "Why? _How_?"

"And how would you explain caring so much about them?" Enzo asked, glancing at Astor. "Maybe it's not as permanent a spell as you'd like to think?"

Lily was silent for a while, a glimpse of wistfulness in Enzo's eyes proof enough she couldn't trust him and yet sometimes she found him easiest to talk to out of her entire chance-forged family.

"You're mistaken," Lily replied blankly, outstretching her long, pale fingers and looking at them thoughtfully. "Love makes you sad and I'm not sad. I'm angry. I was only warning them before. Now we are at war."

"Do you want to know what I think?" Enzo asked after a pause, sitting back and turning his gaze away from her. "I think you're punishing them for not saving you when there was still time for that," he muttered pensively. "But they were only children, not sly enough to even save themselves."

Out of the corner of his eye he could see that not a muscle in Lily's face twitched, but her bony fingers in her lap slowly rolled up into fists and something dawned on him.

He looked at her. "Or maybe it's the other way around," he said and for a second Lily's eyes were not as guarded and he could see a flicker of an emotion in them. "Maybe you're punishing yourself for not saving them?"

xxxdelenaxxx

When Elena came back from Hope's room after tucking her to sleep, Damon was lying in the middle of the bed, a _Local Attractions_ brochure in his hand.

"You need to choose one side of the bed and stay there," Elena said, hopping onto the bed and trying to get Damon to move.

"Why?" He asked, biting back a roguish smile that was all too visible in his eyes. "Feel free to snuggle up," he lifted his arm in an inviting gesture, drumming his fingers in the air.

"Do you think you need sneaky methods to make me do that?" Elena asked with a small smile, snuggling against him so immediately and with such ease that he held his breath waiting for what she might do next.

But she limited herself to draping her arm over his chest and leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Who knows," Damon said, somehow not realizing before that the position would bring her to him _that_ close. He was a little amazed how quickly his heartbeat and breathing adjusted to hers. "After all, you don't even want to kiss me."

"I do want to kiss you," Elena said softly after a pause and just like that, the page containing a list of museums and historical sites that he was reading became an illegible collage of words and colors. "But... I'm just not ready to see it fail." She stifled a weak chuckle. Damon titled his head to the side, giving her a questioning look. "I know it won't undo the spell, but I can't help wishing that it would."

She half-expected a 'let's give it a try,' joke to follow, but Damon simply continued looking at her for a longer while.

"So what _is_ your plan, Elena?" He asked at last, his voice serious despite a flicker of amusement in his eyes.

She shrugged, fidgeting a little, which was rather vicious, Damon thought, considering that her body was completely aligned with his.

"Make you fall in love with me again?" She admitted honestly and he didn't succeed in stifling a snort. "That's not funny," Elena protested, sitting up.

"Just on the contrary," Damon argued, clasping his hands behind his head. "That's hilarious. How can someone deprived, magically or otherwise, of the ability to love fall in love?"

Elena sighed. "Someone once told me that there was no spell that could break someone from loving too much," she said, drawing abstract shapes with her fingertips on the white bed cover, slowly looking up to meet his gaze when Damon subconsciously pulled himself into a sitting position to bring himself closer to her. "Is it really possible to absorb out of someone something so deep, so vast it can't be measured, something that doesn't end, doesn't have any limits?"

Elena's eyes was lighting up more and more as she spoke and Damon found himself caught up in the warmth emanating from her eyes, from her. A heavy, deafening silence was echoing emptily inside him, but her every word seemed to flicker through him like a firefly he wasn't able to communicate with or keep, but could still gaze at it in wonder.

"I feel like... like I love you so much that no matter how much love was sucked out of me there would still be more and more of it." Elena smiled brokenly and then held her breath when Damon reached out to brush her cheek with the backs of his fingers.

"It makes no sense not to feel anything when someone says something like that to you," he murmured under his breath, his hand sliding off her cheek.

He felt like only now the realization was beginning to sink in, that it wasn't how he was supposed to feel. It was a spell, something completely external that was not only making him feel nothing, but also making him think that feeling nothing was the only right way to feel.

Elena grasped his hand and closed it in hers. "We'll get through this," she said so earnestly that Damon thought he could believe in anything if only she deemed it possible or true.

Shreds of memories flickered through his head, that puzzling streak of daft determination that she possessed, all the lost battles she'd won and that inextinguishable light in her eyes that always ignited hope.

With a smile, Elena threw her arms around him and this time he hugged her back, slowly running his fingers through her hair, wondering what it'd feel like if he felt what she was feeling.

There was still a part of him that was nudging him to push her away and not think about anything related to her, but with her in his arms it was all of a sudden strangely easy to resist any unwanted thoughts, especially such senseless ones, because why would he voluntarily quit doing something that felt so good, simultaneously soothing and exhilarating? Holding her in his arms was endowing him with such strange sort of strength. As if anything could happen. As if he could do anything.

And no matter what it was that she was making him feel, there was no way he'd be letting go of it.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Some people can't be bothered with garage sales," the taxi driver observed with a snort, giving appalled Caroline her credit card back.

She jumped out of the car without a word and rushed toward the door, hardly able to tear her gaze away from all the paintings, blank canvas, easels, brushes and dozens of paint tubes stashed outside, piled up without care, as if they were all meant to be thrown away without a second thought.

On the bright side, at least it meant he was home, Caroline thought, inwardly fearing on her way here that Klaus hadn't gone back to New Orleans, but instead decided to travel somewhere on a whim in which case chances of finding him would've equaled chances of Stefan asking her out before she'd write him a two-page long permission letter.

The door was open, which was worrisome enough, but there were only so many atrocities she wasn't prepared to see-

With a stifled cry, Caroline ran to the kitchen and came back with a bottle of water which she promptly poured into the fireplace.

Only then she noticed Klaus sitting in a tall chair nearby, looking very much amused by her actions.

"What the hell are you doing?" Caroline exclaimed angrily, trying to pick up all the drawings and sketches from the fireplace, but unfortunately most of them were already half-charred and they crumbled under her touch.

"With all due respect, Caroline, I could ask you the same question," Klaus replied, smirking.

"You know, the fact that you're immortal is the only rational explanation why you're still around, otherwise someone would've poisoned you centuries ago." Caroline slumped onto the chair across from him, glancing at the ruined pieces of paper in her hands. "Do you know that Lily Salvatore had a spell mixed into that tea she served you?" She asked, hoping that regardless of his emotional abilities being gone, at least Klaus' intellectual faculties were still operating. "And that spell she told you about? She actually cast it on you!"

She looked at Klaus waiting for a reaction and she didn't even blink in order not to miss the slightest change in his expression, but her words seemed to wash over Klaus without any effect.

"What makes you think I didn't agree to it?"

"You wouldn't," Caroline stated firmly, but in an outraged tone just in case he would.

Klaus raised his eyebrows, amusement shimmering in his eyes and Caroline inwardly sighed with relief that at least his _so_ annoying, charming demeanor seemed intact. Not that she was going to tell him that.

"Very well, then, I wouldn't," Klaus allowed with a shrug. "What does it matter?"

"What does anything matter?" Caroline said mockingly and Klaus actually seemed to ponder the sentence for a second, because a shadow of doubt flitted across his face. "Your daughter needs you. Not to mention that we need your help finding a way to reverse that spell, because you're not the only one affected," she added after a moment of hesitation.

Klaus rose to his feet, his mouth quirking into a smile. "It's funny, but I don't feel any inclination to help you. In fact, I just wish you stopped talking," he said with a sigh and Caroline thought he must've been drawing some wicked pleasure from riling her up, because his smile threatened to turn into a grin when she stormed to her feet.

"And what are you going to do in case I keep talking?" She asked challengingly, walking up to him.

Klaus wrinkled his nose as if he tried to remember something. "Wait, wait, what is this called?" He made circling motions with his hand and then lifted his finger apparently finding the answer. "A shut up kiss!"

Caroline blinked, momentarily caught off guard, but she quickly regained her composure and shot him a glare.

"You're not funny," she said through her teeth, not sure where all this amusement in his eyes was coming from. Apparently, he found being devoid of love exhilarating.

Klaus sighed in theatrical resignation. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Caroline frowned, not really expecting him to carry on with his, well, threat, but she barely have the time to give him an indignant look before his lips crashed against hers.

She wanted to push him away, but couldn't really figure out an effective way to do that, so for the time being she decided to run her fingers through his hair and kiss him back. She could always push him away later. It was just a kiss, after all, and it wasn't even about him. She just hadn't been kissed in _so_ long and it wasn't as if she loved him or as if he loved her. It wasn't a dangerous kind of kiss.

But as simply enjoyable as the kiss was, the more he kissed her, the more something seemed not right to her... He wasn't kissing her in any emotionless way. There was something vehement in the way he held her and-

Caroline pushed him away so hard Klaus collided with a floor lamp. "Oh my God, you're faking it!" She shouted, throwing her hands up in the air.

Klaus made a face. "No, I'm quite sure I really kissed you."

Caroline glared at him and after a moment of holding her gaze Klaus snickered and briefly laughed under his breath in that childish way that always made her heart melt, although she wouldn't admit it on her deathbed.

"Why didn't you text me or something?! I flew all the way here for no reason!"

With another impish grin Klaus zoomed toward her. "Then allow me to make it worth your while."

Caroline ignored him. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, crossing her arms over chest.

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Accepting their offer was the best way to make sure they'd think I'm on their side."

"Let me guess, you learned how to drink tea without really drinking it from Houdini himself?"

"That too," Klaus said, smirking. "But also, thanks to my dear estranged sister, who would love to meet you, by the way, I'm immune to all and any spells."

"Until you spite her," Caroline observed sardonically. "Or dagger her."

To her annoyance, Klaus continued smiling, his mood unwaveringly good. "The bottom line is, they had to believe it worked and you _not_ panicking wouldn't help ensuring that."

"How did you know I was going to panic?" Caroline asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "And why did you throw away all of your paintings?"

"I just threw away the awful ones," Klaus said dismissively.

"This one doesn't look awful to me," Caroline argued, grabbing off the coffee table one of the drawings she'd saved from the fireplace.

Klaus snatched it out of her hand and threw it into the fire. "I'll draw you a better château."

"I'd prefer a portrait."

"May I choose an attire for you?" Klaus asked, making his way back toward her, a smile not leaving his face.

Caroline stifled a smile. "Absolutely not!"

xxxdelenaxxx

"Elena's not my mom," Hope countered the shop assistant's conversational comment with a giggle, her eyes following the girl's hands with great interest as she was scanning all the sand molds one by one. "My mom's the queen of _all_ the wolves and she's traveling _all_ the time."

"I see," the girl said, nodding with understanding and glancing at Elena with an amused smile. "That sounds like a cool job."

"It is," Hope confirmed, grabbing a blue castle mold as soon as the girl at the counter scanned its price tag. "When I grow up I'll be traveling with her."

Elena grimaced inwardly, her heart clenching at the recurring thought of Hope and Hayley having been separated for five years now, only seeing each other once a month. And according to Klaus the cure could remedy that. Ever since Caroline had told her about it the thought was weighing on her conscience, but as selfish as it was she couldn't bring herself to considering giving the cure to Hayley instead of Damon. Even now that Damon didn't want the cure, she wasn't able to let go of hope for their human life, for their happy future together. Perhaps there were other ways to reverse the spell cast on Hayley and her pack and Elena vowed to find it.

"Elena? Elena Gilbert?"

Deep in thought, Elena barely heard the voice, her attention drawn to it only when Hope lightly tugged on her hand noticing someone stop in his tracks at the sight of them exiting a small toy store near the beach.

Elena looked up, her eyes widening in surprise. "Liam?"

He smiled in disbelief.. "It is you. Where have you been? I haven't seen you in... years!" Liam shook his head. "You just... disappeared. Dropped out and left without a good-bye. I was wondering what happened to you," he added with a sincere glimpse of worry in his eyes.

Elena grimaced. "Yeah, I... I've been... busy," she said evasively.

"Yes, I can see that." Liam glanced at Hope who was hugging a pink bucket filled with sand molds to her. "I just wish you returned one of my calls. I was worried about you. We could've kept in touch."

"I know, I'm sorry. It's a bit difficult to explain, but... I just wasn't really able to make any phone calls," Elena said with a brief smile, beginning to feel very awkward and uncomfortable, not really knowing what to say.

"For five years?" Liam said dubiously.

"Well, apparently you didn't make the list of people deserving a satellite call every once in a while."

Elena's eyes darted to Damon who walked up to them and to Hope's amusement combed through her hair with a sand rake before giving the toy to her.

A flicker of a sardonic smile flickered across Liam's face and he shifted his gaze back to Elena, his eyes filled with something akin to disappointment mixed with sympathy.

"Elena's been sailing all around the world," Damon said and Elena smiled a little at the thought that Damon's account of her last five years wasn't that far from the truth. They've done quite a bit of sailing in their imaginary dream world. "What have you been up to?" Damon asked offhandedly, tilting his head to the side and draping his arm around Elena's waist.

"Harvard Medical School, second year now. It's been great, thanks," Liam answered, giving Damon a thin smile before shifting his eyes to Elena, his expression softening. "Will you be going back to Whitmore? You should. You had talent."

"Oh, she still has it, don't worry," Damon retorted before Elena had a chance to reply, which only seemed to strengthen Liam's apparent conviction that she was stuck in some kind of a toxic relationship with an abusive boyfriend who intended to ruin her life.

Elena stifled an urge to roll her eyes and was about to end the meeting, but then something occurred to her.

"Do you have any plans for the afternoon? Maybe we could meet up for lunch?" She proposed, ignoring the expression on Damon's face that she could see out of the corner of her eye, his grip on her waist tightening.

"Sure, that'd be awesome," Liam said, returning her smile. "That place right there is very good," he said, pointing to a restaurant nearby. "Have you been there?"

"No, we just arrived yesterday," Elena said with a smile. "Would 2pm be good?"

"Perfect. I'll see you then," Liam said, making a point of not even sparing Damon another glance.

Or Hope, for that matter, Elena thought, watching Liam walk away. If it wasn't for her plan to explore Damon's jealousy a little, she wasn't sure she'd be interested in seeing Liam again. There was something condescending in his demeanor, something that was only vaguely there before, but seemed to develop into an actual personality trait over the years.

"Do you really want to eat lunch with that idiot?" Damon asked with an incredulous grimace.

Elena covered Hope's ears, giving Damon a pointed look.

"He _is_ an idiot, there's no reason why the kid shouldn't be aware of it," Damon repeated, looking at Hope who having wiggled her way out of Elena's protective embrace, started showing him everything they had bought in the toy store.

"Why would you care about me going out with him if you don't love me?" Elena asked, holding his gaze before walking past him and making her way toward a small staircase that led onto the beach.

Damon followed Elena with his eyes, finding the sight of her frilly dress and her dark hair billowing lightly in the wind strangely mesmerizing.

Hope ran after Elena and when every few steps of the way one of the sand molds would fall out of her bucket, she'd pick it up, put it in the exact same place and continue running until the mold fell out again.

"Going out with him would be a waste of time and I don't want you to waste your time, because... because I like you," Damon said when he caught up with them.

Elena stood motionlessly staring out at the sea for a few more seconds before she turned around to look at him. "You like me?" She echoed softly, joy radiating off her face even though she wasn't smiling.

" _You're lucky you're so adorable, because your eternal optimism is super annoying."_

Damon frowned, not quite sure if the tingling sensation on his neck was the breeze or the memory of Elena's arms wrapped around him.

"I'm going to build the first castle all by myself!" Hope announced, hopping between them, pushing her flip-flops to the side and pulling a purple sand shovel out of the beach bag.

Elena smiled at her and careful not to step on the future moat, she skipped toward Damon, his arms instinctively reaching out to catch her in case she lost her balance.

"Yes," he reiterated his previous statement, smirking a little at the way her eyes wandered off to his chest and his unbuttoned shirt.

And he didn't know how he knew that and even though it didn't mean much to him, he was certain it made her think of that night in a motel...

" _Why not?"_

At the corner of somewhere and nowhere...

" _Elena..."_

"I like you," he repeated, his eyes drawn to the sunlight in her hair, the words rolling off his tongue without him meaning to say them.

But for some reason he was uttering the words out loud and they felt so completely true, every single one of them, and so in an abstract effort to grasp that elusive truth within them and understand why he was saying the words in the first place Damon continued, his eyes shifting to Elena's face.

"I like your voice, I like how your eyes light up when you talk about the things you believe in. I like when you laugh and when you're quiet, when you're gazing out of the window in silence. I like your smile, the way in which your eyes narrow when you're lost in thought. I like the way in which you turn book pages, the way in which you tuck your hair behind your ears when you brush your teeth, the way in which you tilt your head when you nestle your face into the pillow. I like how brave you are, how stubborn, how kind, too kind. How you always answer everyone with a smile. I like how your eyelashes flutter when you're falling asleep and how you draw a breath a moment before you wake up."

He really didn't think he said anything upsetting, but for some reason Elena had tears in her eyes, so he let go of her arms and automatically brushed the tears off her face.

Somehow saying all of those words out loud didn't help him understand anything. He felt as confused as before.

"You better put some sunscreen on," Damon said, slumping onto one of the towels.

The sun must've been taking its toll on him too, he thought, bemused and dazed, trying to figure out that burning feeling inside his chest.

He looked up at Elena to see what she was doing and despite the tears in her eyes she looked so radiant he smiled without realizing it.

Elena smiled back at him and then pulled her off-the-shoulder summer dress over her head which left her wearing only a blue bikini.

When she'd said they were going to the beach he should've guessed her plan for today included torture.

"Nice color. Goes with your flip-flops," Damon said cheekily, slowly looking her up and down.

"Actually, I was going for a color that would match your eyes," Elena quipped, leaning over him to take a sunscreen out of the tote bag.

She gasped when Damon sneaked his arms around her, flipped her over and trapped her underneath him.

"Damon!" Elena chastised him in a hushed voice, glancing under his arm at Hope who luckily wasn't paying much attention to them, completely engrossed in adding another floor to her castle.

"Elena!" Damon mirrored her facial expression.

He trailed a few kisses along her shoulder and then abruptly sat up, smirking to himself when he heard Elena draw a sharp intake of breath.

"Shark attack!" Damon yelled, grabbing one of Elena's flip-flops and making it charge onto Hope's castle.

"Nooo!" Hope screamed, jumping to her feet and then giggled when the flip-flop seemed to reconsider the attack, glancing right and left while hanging in the air right above her castle.

After a moment of hesitation, it turned around and landed in a pile of sand with a grumbling noise.

Elena and Hope laughed.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Do you think it's her?" Jeremy asked after the door bell rang for the second time.

"Do you think that if we don't open the door she'll realize her faux pas and go send us a RSVP first?" Sarah asked with a straight face in a completely serious voice.

Bonnie snorted and to Jeremy's befuddlement she exchanged amused smiles with Sarah. He found it really confusing that Bonnie seemed to have no problems being on friendly terms with Sarah while ignoring him at best.

"Yeah, I'll better go open the door," Stefan said with a sigh, rising to his feet.

It felt so strange, going to the door now with such a heavy heart while he still remembered so vividly running to the door as a child, so impatient to see his mother even after she'd have been gone for only an hour or two.

"If you don't come back in two days we'll call the police," Bonnie reassured him and Stefan gave her a weak smile over his shoulder.

xxxdelenaxxx

Of course he couldn't know for sure, but Damon was rather certain that even without any spells placed over him he wouldn't want anyone, including himself, to know that he could be so content spending his afternoons running after a princess beach ball, fighting over sand molds, eating Tutti Frutti ice-cream, listening to seashells and doing sand angels.

He was about to add another tower to his sand castle when a bucket of water was poured over his head. Hope giggled, the expression on Damon's face making her laugh even more.

"Elena, run!" Hope shouted, chuckling when Damon jumped to his feet and caught Elena before she managed to run very far.

"The revenge will be-"

Elena twirled around in his arms and pressed a hurried kiss to his cheek. "Sweet?" She offered in a whisper and taking advantage of having distracted Damon from holding her too strongly, she escaped his embrace and broke into a run toward the sea.

"Wait for me! Wait for me!" Hope grabbed her swim ring and ran after Elena.

When Damon reached the water line, Hope was sitting inside her swimming tube and laughing while Elena was spinning the ring around. Small waves were lifting them up every once in a while, wet strands of hair clinging to Elena's face and he blamed her smile for being so contagious, because there was no other explanation why he felt like smiling every time he looked at her.

He glanced at the sky and then at Elena again, his smile turning into an aghast frown when he suddenly noticed that Elena's head was low in the water, tilted backwards, her eyes wide open and she seemed to have troubles catching her breath.

Feeling hardly able to breathe himself, Damon jumped into the water and swam to her at vampire speed, reaching her in virtually no time, quickly, almost roughly gathering her into his arms, guiding her arms around his neck. He couldn't remember being that afraid.

Or maybe he could.

" _You're not dead!... You're not dead!..."_

Elena's arms immediately wrapped around him and she coughed up water a few times before drawing a more steady breath.

"Are you OK?" Damon asked, one of his arms supporting her firmly, his other hand cupping her cheek, his eyes wandering all over her face with utmost anxiety.

"I just... I got a cramp in my foot," Elena stammered, glancing at Hope.

Damon followed her gaze, but Hope didn't seem to have noticed anything and was still floating cheerfully in her ring, splashing the water around with her hands.

"Are you OK?" Damon repeated, looking back at Elena.

"I think so," Elena nodded with a weak smile, clinging to him, her eyes still looking a little glassy, her face pale.

Damon's forehead fell against hers and he couldn't explain it in any conceivable way but in that moment he felt like nothing in the world could ever matter as much as her being alive.

xxxdelenaxxx

Liam glanced at his watch and then looked around the restaurant with a small sigh.

"They're running late, aren't they?" Gretta said with a detached smile, slipping into a chair across from him.

Liam leaned back in his chair, giving her an odd look. "Excuse me?"

Gretta propped her elbows on the table, her eyes boring into Liam's whose expression suddenly became completely blank, compulsion seeping into his mind, taking over it within seconds.

"Now, you're going to listen to me _very_ carefully."


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Thank you **so much** for all the amazing reviews! :] Every single one of them makes me very, very, very happy! :)

A shout-out to Ani: I'm SO glad if this fic is working the way it's supposed to, i.e. helps healing our broken DE hearts, at least a little ;] Thank you so much!

 **Chapter 9**

"Sorry for being late, but we were held back by a shark," Damon said, tossing Hope's swimming tube on a seat next to Liam, interrupting his scrutiny of Elena's legs.

"No problem," Liam said evenly, wiping drops of water off his face.

"It wasn't a real shark." Hope was quick to clarify, climbing over Liam onto the other side of the bench.

Grimacing a little, Liam brushed the sand from her flip-flops off his white clothes.

Elena's eyes darted between Damon and Hope as she had an unclear suspicion something was up.

"It was a _mechanical_ shark." Hope widened her eyes at Liam, apparently expecting a more enthusiastic reaction than a mildly bemused look on his face.

"It was a shark speedboat, but it did look pretty real," Elena said with a smile, taking a seat across from Liam and next to Damon who had her hand clasped in his and didn't let go of if even when they were seated.

Watching Elena out of the corner of his eye, Damon wondered if she'd be trying to snatch her hand free, but it seemed that she was more amused than annoyed by having her hand made unavailable to her and even slid her fingers in between his, effortlessly reaching for a glass with her left hand. He smirked to himself. Her vintage moral notions aside, she was a good sport most of the time.

"The water was splashing all over the shark and everyone in the boat!" Hope continued, trying to demonstrate the splashing by placing one of her sand molds in the middle of her plate, grabbing Liam's water glass, pouring the water onto her plate and then splashing it over the sand mold with a spoon.

"Sounds fun," Liam said stiffly, turning to Elena.

Now that he thought about it he wasn't sure why, but he had actually expected her to come alone. There wasn't much catching up they could do between a bratty five-year-old and a guy who looked at him as if he was contemplating one hundred and one ways to kill him.

"Are you here by yourself?" Elena asked conversationally, kicking Damon under the table to remind him that he'd promised to behave.

But of course it was probably naïve of her to believe that he would, she thought, taking another sip of her water in a feeble attempt to justify her gasp with thirst when without a warning her foot got caught in between Damon's feet.

"It's so humid today," she muttered into her cup, quickly realizing that sitting next to Damon was a bad idea.

She held her breath when he placed his hand on her thigh and even though he wasn't, at least not yet, doing anything with it, she found it very difficult to focus on the conversation while her imagination was prompted to start conjuring up highly distracting images.

"I'm visiting my parents," Liam said, glancing uncertainly at Hope who started stashing everyone's cutlery on her plate.

Elena kept glancing at her, rather puzzled herself, because she wasn't sure where this behavior was coming from. Up till now Hope had been a very well-behaved child.

"Oh, they live here? How nice." Elena smiled, surreptitiously trying to push Damon's hand of her thigh.

Unfortunately, her ministrations only resulted in him sneaking his hand underneath her dress, so his hand was still on her thigh, except that now there wasn't a layer of fabric between her skin and his hand. She blinked rapidly.

"Yes, I grew up here, actually," Liam said, glancing at the waitress who just walked up to them.

"May I have onion rings, tomato soup with sour cream, macaroni and cheese and strawberry ice-cream?" Hope recited, abruptly drawing up her legs to sit cross-legged on the bench, a sudden movement causing one of her flip-flops to catapult itself into the air and land in the middle of Liam's plate.

Hope froze for a second, caught off guard by the sight, but then she laughed, apparently delighted by what had happened, glancing at Damon for what looked like approval, which only confirmed to Elena that some kind of a secret alliance was going on here.

Oh, Damon could _so_ consider himself very much in trouble for making a child his partner in crime, Elena thought with an inward huff.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Pretzels or peanuts?" Klaus repeated the flight attendant's words, because Caroline was so engrossed in trying to find something in her purse that she hadn't even noticed someone had asked her a question.

Her head snapped toward Klaus. "What?" She asked with an impatient grimace.

"We'll take both," Klaus said with a benign smile, taking two small bags from the stewardess and waiting for her to move onto the next row before presenting the two options to Caroline once again.

"Seriously?" Caroline narrowed her eyes at him before turning her eyes back to her purse. "And what do you even mean that casting the stupid spell over everyone can't be their only goal?"

Klaus glanced around, not very bothered but rather amused by how loud Caroline was speaking.

"Well, would you share all of your secret designs during the first conversation with a virtual stranger?" Klaus asked, reading the nutrition facts label on the back of the pretzels.

"If I thought I was speaking with someone as evil as me- Oh no!..." Caroline gasped, very gently taking a velvet drawstring pouch out of her purse and then picking up tiny pieces of paper, scattered at the bottom of her purse, and very carefully putting them back into the pouch.

Klaus raised his eyebrows, watching her for a few seconds with an amused expression on his face that became thoughtful the longer he looked at her.

"What is it?" He finally asked, peering into her purse.

"Nothing," Caroline grunted. "No, don't!" She exclaimed, making a few fellow passengers look at her.

She shot Klaus an indignant look, trying to get back one of the pieces he'd snatched out of her hand.

Ignoring her, Klaus narrowed his eyes at the scrap, trying to figure out what it was, but it was hard to tell anything based on a single letter that the piece contained that could belong to almost any word, really.

"It's a letter from my mom," Caroline said and Klaus' eyes darted to her. "Give it back," she added under her breath, low tone of voice failing to conceal a quiver in it.

"Why is it in shreds? Does it say something upsetting?" Klaus gave her a small, encouraging smile that turned into a frown when Caroline abruptly brushed off the tears that instantaneously flooded her eyes.

"I don't know what it says. I've never read it," she said under her breath, looking at her hands, her fingernails digging into the soft fabric of the pouch. "I tore it into shreds when my humanity was off," she added after a pause.

A flight attendant walked passed them again, asking them to buckle their seat belts. Slowly, the plane began to move.

Caroline didn't move, not until she felt Klaus' hands on her waist. She opened her mouth to protest, but then she realized what he was doing. The seatbelt clicked and Klaus leaned away from her.

"May I?"

Caroline's eyes flew to his open palm and she wrinkled her nose in confusion. She followed his gaze when he glanced at the pouch in her hand.

She shook her head with a grimace. "They are all like this," she said, trying to get back that one tiny scrap he already had.

But Klaus closed it inside his hand, his other one still outstretched toward her. Caroline gave him an exasperated look, but he arched an eyebrow at her, a ghost of a smirk flitting across his lips and she knew there was no point trying to argue, because he wouldn't give in.

With an annoyed huff, Caroline handed him the pouch.

Klaus reached into the suitcase under his seat from which he pulled out two passe-partouts that he placed on a lowered tray in front of him.

Caroline leaned her head against the headrest and closed her eyes.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I'm surprised you fight for him so much after he took everything from you," Lily said in a low, blank voice.

Her eyes were fixed on Stefan, but Bonnie felt as if Lily was simultaneously looking also at her, Jeremy and Sarah, aware of the slightest movement in her vicinity.

Stefan made a face. "You mean... that set of silver toy soldiers? I got them back, eventually," he said with a thin smile. "Can we go back to the topic?"

"Did he even ask you if maybe you wanted the cure?" Lily continued, ignoring him.

"Nope, we can't," Bonnie muttered, folding her arms and leaning back on the couch.

Sarah glanced at Jeremy who was watching Bonnie almost for the entire time without even realizing it. He couldn't put his finger on what it was exactly that was so different about her, except that she seemed completely unconcerned with everyone's opinion and seemed to be voicing things she would've just thought to herself before.

Or perhaps he just hadn't seen her in a very long while, Jeremy thought with a frown. Maybe she'd simply changed in the course of five years, not overnight.

"I don't think that's relevant at all, but yes, if you must know, I had a chance to take the cure and I decided not to take it."

"And what about Elena?" Lily asked, slightly tilting her head to the side.

"What about her?" Stefan asked, confused.

Jeremy raised his eyebrows a little amused when Bonnie loudly stifled a groan.

"That's _so_ last decade. That's why I hate dying. When you come back you're always behind on everyone's relationships. Granted, when you died your sons were still happily single, which makes me wonder what are your sources? Enzo? Stefan's diaries? Elena's diaries?"

"I burned my diaries," Stefan cut in and shrugged when Bonnie gave him a surprised look.

"Elena burned hers too. Along with my comic book collection," Jeremy said with a sigh.

Sarah bit her lip, stifling a smile. "Is this like a local tradition or something?"

"Yes and if you want to be a rebel around here you drown your diaries," Bonnie said matter-of-factly. "Steven's Quarry if a good place to do that. It's very deep. Ask Stefan. He spent three months in there."

"Three and a half," Stefan amended.

"How can you not see that love brings nothing but pain?" Lily interrupted the exchange, ignoring the humorous interlude.

"Really?" Bonnie sat up, shotting her an irritated look. "Having two children who adored you was that painful? So what if your husband was a monster? Get over yourself. No one is always happy. Life is made of happy _and_ horrible moments. That's the way it is."

Memories of Bonnie risking her life, sacrificing herself so many times, flickered through Jeremy's mind. And that one frightening day when she had wanted to end her life. She was so strong to survive it all and Jeremy scowled at himself struck by the sudden realization that in five years he hadn't got a chance to tell her how much he admired her for that.

"But it doesn't have to be that way," Lily interjected smoothly in a chillingly unfaltering, convincing voice. "Suffering is too high a price for those specks of happiness. They aren't bright enough. Sooner or later they're swallowed up by the darkness. I offer you an escape from all the pain. This spell is your, this spell is everyone's best chance."

"That's why you came here?" Stefan asked with a grimace, his eyebrows furrowed. "Then I'm afraid you misread by message. We're not interested in learning more about your cause, so we could donate our lives to it. We're interested in you reversing the spell that you cast on Damon, forgetting about the cure and leaving Mystic Falls. Three simple tasks. Failure to complete any of them will result in the rest of your friends finding themselves decapitated."

"Are you threatening me?" Lily asked with an unpleasant, mirthless smile. "Do you really think you stand a chance against me? Very well. If you choose suffering over freedom, then all of you shall suffer."

She rose to her feet.

"Now you're threatening us," Jeremy said, exchanging looks with Stefan and Bonnie who both seemed frustrated and disappointed that the meeting ended up leading absolutely nowhere.

Slowly, Lily turned toward him. "Do you know where does the Gemini coven's name come from?"

"Other than the whole twins thing?" Sarah offered, squinting.

Lily's smile chilled her to her bones.

"Witches from the Gemini coven could move freely between the world of the living and the world of the dead until the passage was sealed by one fraction while the opposing fraction was banished from the coven. But those who sealed the passage are all dead now. The only remaining Gemini witches are the ones who always wanted to keep the passage open."

"Too bad that the Other Side collapsed," Jeremy said, giving her a sour look.

"The Other Side?" Lily arched an eyebrow. "The Other Side was just a purgatory. The world of the dead is a permanent place where the souls find eternal peace."

Stefan frowned. "I'm not sure what you're getting at."

"Accept my offer, let go of love. If you don't, all of your beloved dead will suffer for it. They'll be ripped out of their eternal peace and thrown into darkness and chaos where they'll be tormented until the end of time."

"You can't do that," Bonnie said with a dangerous glint in her eye. "You said the passage was sealed. You don't have enough power to unseal it."

Lily laughed dryly. "We've been absorbing magic for five years now. But if you're skeptical... I'm yet to choose who will pay for Astor's death. Should it be your grandmother?"

Jeremy felt his heart clench at the sight of a change in Bonnie's expression.

"Don't you dare mention her!" Bonnie jumped to her feet, a gust of fiery wind swishing across the room and straight at Lily who turned the direction of it with an unhurried flick of her hand.

"Or perhaps your parents? Your aunt? Vicki? Anna?" Lily looked at Jeremy who stared up at her in barely concealable dismay. She shifted her gaze to Sarah. "Or maybe your parents?" Then to Stefan. "Your friend Caroline's mother? Lexi? I shall send you a... note once I choose," she said, giving Stefan a cold final smile before leaving the house in a stygian blur.

xxxdelenaxxx

The weather announcement shook Caroline out of her shallow sleep and her eyes fluttered open. She wrinkled her nose and sat up a little straighter, colliding with an open tray in front of her.

Absently, she reached out to close it, but her hand got suspended in the air when her drowsy gaze fell onto a black passe-partout splayed over the tray, countless tiny pieces of paper glued to it, arranged in what couldn't possibly make any sense, couldn't possibly be put back together like that, letter by letter, word by word, as if Liz was speaking to her through time, through whatever worlds were between them now.

 _My Beautiful, Brave Daughter, My Dearest Caroline_

Tears blurred Caroline's vision before she managed to get to the second line of the letter. Her hand flew to her mouth and she stifled a sob.

She looked at Klaus who gave her a her a small, encouraging smile. "Read on, love."

xxxdelenaxxx

Damon didn't even try to be very stealthy about it, she had to give him that, because as soon as they walked out of the restaurant, Hope started running and hopping around them, boasting happily about being 'bad-mannered, loud and annoying' and heading straight for the toy store for her 'reward'.

"I can't believe you did that!" Elena whispered resentfully, glaring at Damon and shaking her head in astonishment while Hope was busy running between the shelves, picking out dolls. "Bribed a child into being rude!" She clarified when Damon pretended to look completely baffled by her accusations.

Damon smirked. "First of all, she thought it was just a game, second of all, the doll is a reward for playing the game, not for being rude, so it's all perfectly didactic, don't worry."

Elena narrowed her eyes at him in indignation, but then smiled brightly at Hope when she ran back to them carrying at least ten dolls in her arms.

"I can't choose!" She said with a pout, sincerely perturbed.

"Don't have to. We can take all of them," Damon said with a dismissive wave of his hand to Hope's absolute delight and then went straight to the cash register before Elena had a chance to admonish him again.

She still intended to do that once they were out of the store, so when on their way through a park Hope jumped onto a swing, Elena wanted to resume the discussion.

However, as soon as she opened her mouth to speak, Damon spun her around and she landed in his arms, the movement reminding her so much about their last dance that she was momentarily rendered speechless.

"It was a fun day, admit it," Damon murmured, his lips hovering over hers, his eyes boring into Elena's eyes with intensity that made her heart race.

"Yes, fun _and_ enlightening," Elena said and Damon's mouth stretched into a lop-sided smile when she gracefully locked her arms behind his neck. "Now I know what type of parent you'll be."

Damon rolled his eyes, nestling his face in her hair. "Is this the cure conversation?"

He could feel Elena stiffen in his arms and the realization that his tone might've hurt her affected him more than he thought reasonable.

"You wanted to take the cure with me," Elena said quietly, slowly threading her fingers through Damon's hair, the setting sun draping a red glow over them. "Even if you don't feel why right now, you must remember that you wanted to take it."

Damon didn't say anything, but Elena could feel him draw a breath and wrinkle his forehead. She wondered if it meant he was trying to remember or rather that it simply upset him to think about it. She also wondered if he was analyzing why he was holding her in his arms in the first place, why he was drawn to her, hardly let go of her hand all day, felt the need to constantly be so close to her.

Damon frowned. His ears curtained by her hair, Elena's voice sounded a little like he was hearing it over the phone and the sudden, abstract impression rippled through his thoughts with strange force.

" _I'm telling you, it's the most real thing that I've ever felt in my entire life."_

The words flew to him, blazed across his thoughts before disappearing in a flash, washed away by a wave of aversion toward thinking about the past, by the overpowering sense of exhaustion layered with pain.

But it was a spell.

Only that he didn't care.

But how could he not care? Wasn't the fact that he didn't care also a part of that spell to begin with?

"I've never got to tell you..."

Damon closed his eyes and just listened to Elena's voice, slowly gliding his hand up her back until it got tangled in her hair. _"What's that face?"_

"Do you know when I first realized that I was in love with you?" Elena asked quietly, tightening her embrace around him.

The more he tried to think about any of it the more hazy his mind was becoming and the only way to clear it was to think about something else, something that didn't require feeling anything.

But her question sparked so many memories that the words _"I love you"_ spoken in her voice began echoing through his head with stubbornness of an aggravating tune that just wouldn't go away.

Damon winced, the words making him feel almost physically unwell. For a few seconds all he could see were black stains dancing in front of his eyes, dull ringing filling his ears.

But then Elena spoke again and some strange, unyielding need to hear exactly what she was going to say seemed to put all the disruptive images and noises on hold.

"It was my birthday."

It wasn't a voice over the phone anymore, but right next to him, her breath warm against his skin, one of her hands gripping his shoulder, her other hand cupping his cheek, trying to see his face, his eyes.

He raised his head, just enough to look at her, his cheek still touching hers.

"Your birthday?"

He looked genuinely puzzled as if he tried to pinpoint the moment she was referring to, but couldn't do it.

" _I got you something."_

Elena smiled brokenly. "Yes. When you gave me back my necklace."

" _I know I promised not to buy you anything, so don't worry, I didn't pay for it."_

Damon lifted his head higher, his eyebrows furrowed, his eyes darting between Elena's face and their surroundings.

" _You stole it?"_

"That birthday?" Damon frowned. That strange, long, sultry summer that started with a death-bed pity kiss and ended with Stefan killing poor Andie for effect.

" _No."_

He remembered Elena's flimsy dress, so white it almost blinded him when he'd walked up into the room and found her standing in front of the mirror.

" _Found it."_

That memory wasn't as impossible to recall as some of the others. It didn't held as much pain, perhaps because it wasn't immersed in love, but rather tinged with bitter sadness. It wasn't his mirror or his room and she wasn't his and it never crossed his mind she might've already loved him then.

And only now that her words were registering in his mind, some adverse mechanisms were beginning to fight the memory, trying to push it into the same off limits compartment where other good memories seemed to be.

"That conversation that we had," Elena continued, her fingers skimming across Damon's face, her heartbeat quickening when she noticed that he was visibly shaken by her words. "Later I always thought how we weren't speaking about the necklace at all. That it was my heart that you found, _not_ stole." She gave him a brief, bright smile, holding his face in the palms of her hands, her gaze darting between his eyes and his lips.

He remembered her hands on his face, her arms around him, so many times. At first those gestures were only sympathetic, only kind. Like when the tomb had turned out to be empty... and for seemingly no reason whatsoever he'd followed her out of the dark...

Then accidental, unconscious, unplanned... _"You need to stop doing that."_ And yet he'd welcomed each with open heart until he'd run out of hope and then, and then suddenly, after, only after he'd stopped believing in everything from hate to love, she'd come to him, looked at him with more love than he'd ever seen in anyone's eyes before.

" _You."_

The onslaught of emotions elicited by the memory caused him to almost lose his balance and Damon stumbled backwards, his hands flying to his head, because it suddenly felt as if all the pain gathered inside it and his mind was about the burst.

" _Do you want to know what I think?"_

"Damon?" Elena gasped, grasping his arms, watching him with terrified eyes.

" _I don't think I've ever seen you more alive."_

Damon winced, those tiny shoes, tiny red shoes on her dark blue dress, the hardly perceptible pattern he hadn't noticed at first, that he'd never forget...

Her eyes. Her beautiful, warm eyes. Right after he'd initiated a turn, whirling her away from him, her hand clasped in his. Her eyes were so lost in his when he'd hastily brought her back into his arms, their lips meeting in the most tranquil, passionate kiss that he'd spent an eternity waiting for, that he'd wanted for it to last for the rest of eternity. With her. Only with her. _He'd never let her go._

It felt as if molten metal was running through his veins, but he'd fight for it, he wouldn't let this memory to be annihilated by some spell.

"Damon!"

Elena watched Damon's face contort. She didn't know what was happening or how she could help him. Reaching out, she tried to wrap her arms around him and hold him.

Damon drew a raspy intake of breath. Just like that evening when he'd stood frozen to the spot, staring into the fireplace, because it was all over, everything was over. He'd gazed at the logs of wood, burning, turning to ashes like his dreams. How could he have ever believed that she could've loved him out of her own free will?

But then she'd stormed into the room, as if she'd been looking for him, for so long.

" _I'm not sorry that I'm in love with you."_

There was no pain that wouldn't be worth remembering that.

Blinking back the blinding darkness clouding his vision, Damon yanked Elena toward him, her breath catching in her throat when his hands flew to her face to cup her cheeks.

"Damon-" Elena whispered, his name still lingering on her lips when he kissed her.

All the words felt empty, he couldn't grasp the meaning of them, 'love' was echoing dully with vacant importance, everything felt distant and unreal.

Except her.

She was real.

She was the most real thing he'd ever known. When he kissed her, his every thought was clear, infused with light. He knew why he wanted to live. He knew what it meant to be alive.

Elena sighed into his mouth and he pressed her closer to him, tremors rushing simultaneously through them both, miniscule shock waves surging through every nerve, every _bone_.

When was that moment, Damon tried to think, when was that moment when he'd first realized he loved her? Maybe finding that moment would ensure some kind of victory over this spell that was scorching his thoughts, fighting to keep his heart bare. If he could recover that moment of realization, maybe everything else would fall into place? Maybe unlocking that memory would unlock the feelings she was telling him about, feelings he could see in her eyes, feel in the way she kissed him.

His eyes closed, Damon let the kiss overtake all of his senses, Elena's soft lips molded perfectly against his, trembling when he deepened the kiss, so sweet he couldn't get enough of the taste, couldn't get enough of her, her name a myriad of glimmering lights in his mind's eye and he felt he could predict the slightest movement of her body, every tilt of her head, he felt like every atom of him knew the way in which she clung to him, with her arms, her mouth, her _heart_ beating furiously against his chest.

Then suddenly, in the dimly lit interior behind his closed eyelids he saw a moment materialize itself.

" _Are you coming?"_

 _A dark, narrow corridor illuminated by an old, dust-covered light-bulb, uneven stone walls and the hard, cold floor._

 _He'd locked the cell's door and wanted to leave._

 _Elena slowly shook her head. "I'm gonna stay here."_

 _He wanted to go._

 _In the weak, tired light from above the door, far away from her, he could still see every line of her face, her eyes gleaming with determination, refusing to close despite the exhaustion, her dark locks falling over her shoulders, unusually curly, a solitary reminder of the Miss Mystic Falls dance._

 _He wanted to leave._

 _But he stood motionlessly for another second, looking at her as if he was standing on the edge of a precipice, staring into the unknown, the unexpected, the inevitable._

 _The realization was like a thread pushed with a dream-thin needle through every inch of his body all at once._

 _Without a word, he sat down on the floor across from her, his head tilting helplessly toward her, meeting her slightly mystified gaze._

 _There was nowhere to go without her._

Elena's eyes slowly fluttered open when Damon broke the kiss.

"It was the night of the Miss Mystic Falls dance," Damon said in a cracking whisper, brushing Elena's cheeks with his thumbs. "You were so brave that day, so beautiful and when we went downstairs, so tired. You said you were going to spend the night by the cell's door and in that moment I forgot why we were there, what happened, what was going to happen and what would never happen and the only thing that was clear to me was the realization that I loved you, more than anything in the world."

Elena laughed brokenly and Damon leaned down to kiss the tears off her face, but then they jumped up at the sound of Hope's loud scream.

"Elena, watch out!"

Before they managed to even turn their heads, Elena felt a sharp pain in her back, as if someone stabbed her.

Damon immediately pulled her away from the shadow behind her, shielding her, but it was too late.

Liam raised his hand that was holding a syringe, the red liquid inside it glistening in the fading sunlight. "I'm sorry." He shook his head, utterly bewildered. "I don't know why I'm doing this."

"No," Elena whispered, paling from shock.

Damon's eyes widened at the realization. The cure.

"Please-" Elena started, hoping against all hope that compelled or not, it might be possible to reason with Liam, but then suddenly someone appeared right next to him.

"It was very smart of your Bennett witch friend to put a protection spell over you," Gretta said, looking between Damon and Elena with a catty smile on her face. "Too bad it can only keep supernatural creatures away."

Without turning her eyes away from them, Gretta snapped Liam's neck and with the blood-filled syringe in her hand she disappeared into the darkening evening air.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for all the beautiful reviews! :):):)

*hides* (lol)

 **Chapter 10**

"And then they lived happily ever after," Damon concluded with a quick smile, shutting the storybook closed and tossing it onto the nightstand.

"But they just met!" Hope protested, wrinkling her nose in confusion. "They should go to a ball or defeat a dragon first!"

She reached out for the book, but Damon snatched it out of her hands, thinking about turning off the lights and leaving the room with a self-explanatory 'good night,' but Hope was looking at him so sincerely puzzled that he changed his mind.

"Fine, you're right, but..." He bent down on one knee next to the bed and looked at the book with a pensive expression on his face, his eyebrows knitted.

Hope scooted closer to him, propping her head on her elbows.

Damon grimaced. "Elena's very sad tonight and I'd rather go to her than read this." He drummed his fingers over the hard book cover and looked up at Hope.

"She said she was OK when I hugged her," Hope said in a worried tone, visibly saddened by his words.

"Well, she's OK, but she lost something that was important to her and that's why she's sad." Damon put the book away and this time Hope didn't reach for it again.

"What did she lose?" Hope asked, tilting her head to the side. "Can we get it back?"

"I don't know," Damon said with a frown, rising to his feet.

Hope followed him with her eyes. "We should try. I'll help."

Damon smiled at her weakly and then grabbed her Harley-Davidson Bear and threw the toy into her arms.

It wasn't entirely accurate what he'd said about Elena losing something tonight.

Hope laughed briefly and rolled onto her side, leaning her cheek against the Bear's head. "Good night."

The loss of the cure wasn't just Elena's loss.

"Good night," Damon replied, turning off the lights and walking out of the room.

He stood motionlessly by the door for a few more seconds before slowly walking away from it.

It was a loss to both of them.

xxxdelenaxxx

It looked as if someone was deliberately swinging glimmering torrents of rain against the windows and Enzo watched the raindrops collide with the glass in detached fascination. Could fascination be detached? He kept catching himself hoping that every single thought, every emotion was a good sign. Maybe the spell was wearing off? Or maybe he was unconsciously breaking it, somehow?

"I'll never understand why Lily hasn't kicked you out yet." Gretta dropped her jacket onto a couch and sat down on the edge of a chair.

"Maybe because she isn't embittered with me for not being interested in dating her?" Enzo offered without turning his gaze away from the window.

"One of these days she's going to realize she's been giving shelter to a backstabber," Gretta said coolly after a long pause.

With an exasperated sigh, Enzo turned his head toward her, his sardonic smile faltering a little at the sight of a blood-filled syringe she was nonchalantly holding in her hand.

"It's been five years of uninterrupted bloodshed. What reasons do you have to actually call me a traitor, pray tell?" He widened his eyes at her in a mocking manner.

"Oh, I don't know," Gretta put her finger to her chin in feigned consideration. "Maybe it's the fact that your participation in said bloodshed was limited to digging the graves?"

Enzo threw out his arms with a lop-sided sneer. "Someone had to do it."

"Right. Is Lily home?"

"What's in the syringe?" Enzo asked offhandedly, narrowing his eyes at her.

Gretta snarled humorlessly. "Like you don't know."

"What are you going to do with it? It's not enough to use it for the spell. Not for the no-love one anyway," he murmured somberly.

Gretta gave him a caustic smile. "Someone's been eavesdropping."

Enzo ignored the remark. "Are you sure you didn't start absorbing stupidity instead of magic at some point?" He asked with a trace of irritation in his voice. "That'd explain why you'd be as stupid as to think that unsealing the passage between the world of the living and the world of the dead is a good idea."

Gretta laughed dryly. "There you go again. Someone should lock you up, open up you brain and research that," she said with a spiteful glint in her eye.

Enzo's mouth twitched, but he held her gaze without blinking.

"Because it's very interesting," Gretta continued. "How you maintain all these romantic notions despite losing ability to love." She smiled at his mildly confused expression. "You seem to think that we want to open the passage out of some kind of desperation? Because we care for those who died?" She made a sad face and then laughed harshly. "You may find it quite disappointing that it's simply a strategic move. Were you under the impression our fraction always consisted of just Malcolm, Astor and me? The rest of the coven fought us so hard, because we were a _legion_." She stood up. "And that legion is coming back tonight."

xxxdelenaxxx

Bonnie poured hot water into a cup and watched the steam for a few seconds. It used to calm her when she was a child, watching her grandmother brew tea.

Smiling faintly at the memory of her conviction that swirls of steam hovering above tea cups were a language ghosts could read, Bonnie picked up her tea and marched back to the living room.

"Creepy cliché ahead, watch out!" Jeremy called out to her as soon as she turned on the lights upon entering the room, but Bonnie jumped up almost spilling the tea anyway.

"Really?" She frowned.

Here went her quiet, cozy evening. If there was one thing she wished to keep avoiding forever it was Jeremy. Ever since she'd turned, she couldn't figure out if she suddenly started hating him or... was back to _not_ hating him.

"Breaking into people's houses is what they teach at anti-vampire camps?" Bonnie asked, slumping into an armchair and placing the tea cup on the small table next to it.

"Actually, yes, but since you don't look very impressed anyway, I think we can skip talking about that." Jeremy stood up and sat down on a couch closer to her.

Bonnie took her cup into her hands and gazed into it. "What do you want to talk about?"

Jeremy was silent for a while before he spoke in a low voice. "You are the one who said we didn't break up."

"So you're here to officially break up with me?"

He couldn't see her eyes, so he wasn't sure how half-hearted her smile really was.

"I never intended to break up with you," Jeremy said after a pause, watching Bonnie's face, but she seemed determined to keep it unreadable. "Why didn't you call me when you came back?"

"I was glad that you were free from all this," Bonnie replied quietly. "And I wasn't sure if I was still the same person..." She stopped herself in what sounded like mid-sentence and for a second Jeremy thought she intended to say something more but she didn't.

"Why didn't you talk to me when I came to say good-bye to Elena?"

Bonnie's head snapped up. "I just told you. One day wouldn't fix anything. You still already had a life somewhere else and I was still lost."

"You didn't feel like you needed to call me?" Jeremy's voice was so low she couldn't tell his exact tone.

"You weren't calling me day and night either," Bonnie deadpanned.

"I was."

His voice was quiet, his smile sad and Bonnie half-wished for them not to continue, while the other half was making her hold her breath.

"I..." Jeremy trailed off with a sigh, not knowing if saying it was a good idea, but at the same time it seemed like the best thing to say, maybe the only one that could take that frigidly composed look off Bonnie's face. "After you died, I was paying for your phone, so I could call you every day. I must've left you over a hundred angry messages." He smiled weakly, but then continued before Bonnie's reaction could disappoint him. "So what you were going to do tonight?"

For a few moments Bonnie seemed not to have heard him, but then she pulled herself out of her reverie and shifted in her seat with a frown.

"Read," she said with a shrug, avoiding looking at him. "I found a grimoire hidden in a cover of another grimoire. It's about mind connections. Damon and Elena were spending so much time in each other's heads in the last five years that I thought I'd read it to make sure if it wasn't potentially dangerous or anything."

"Sounds fun."

Bonnie snorted. "You're not going to stay here and read with me, are you?"

"Only if you have Doritos," Jeremy said with a cautious smile.

"Nope. Just blood and tea."

Jeremy winced. "Can I at least order a pizza?"

"No. The last pizza guy I ate didn't taste good at all," Bonnie replied flatly, flipping her grimoire open.

Jeremy chuckled, the tiniest smile on Bonnie's face making him feel like a huge weight was being lifted off his shoulders.

xxxdelenaxxx

The room was eerily quiet, the silence softening a little when Damon opened the balcony doors, letting the ocean-scented wind push the curtains to the sides. The sea was darker than the sky, invisible, humming horizon that sounded simultaneously so close and so far.

Elena was curled up on the side of the bed, her head nestled in a pillow and Damon watched her while drying his hair with a towel, trying to sort out all the thoughts that were swimming around in his head today.

It hurt him seeing her so devastated by the loss of the cure. It must've had something to do with that _love_ he remembered, but still couldn't grasp. He thought that maybe he _could_ imagine what it felt like, if he kissed her again. He didn't think she'd believe his scientific approach, but it really was true that the closest he'd gotten to understanding what she was talking about was when he'd kissed her.

"I hope you're not asleep yet," Damon whispered, leaning over Elena and pressing his lips to her cheek.

He frowned when he tasted dried tears on her skin.

"No," Elena mumbled into the pillow, nightmares starring Kai being the last thing she wanted to experience tonight. "We should've called Liam's parents."

Damon fell onto his back with a sigh. "The hospital will call them," he said, narrowing his eyes at the dark ceiling.

He couldn't care less about the guy, and might even be tempted to consider being dead the dude's best quality, but if his death made Elena sad then he'd at least refrain from joking about it.

"It won't matter to them who calls them, especially that they didn't know you anyway, did they?" Damon continued after Elena hadn't replied to his previous statement.

"No, they didn't," Elena confirmed gloomily.

Damon turned his head, watching her for a few seconds, remembering waking up with her in his arms or his face in her hair. Even if the spell was still in place, at least today he managed to overcome those strange inner blockades keeping some of his memories at bay. Now he could remember everything clearly and the memories alone were enough to make him wish he could feel everything he remembered.

"But it'd still be better-"

"Elena, would you let me take your mind off the sad events of today?" Damon asked courtly, nuzzling her neck, his hand sliding down her arm.

He was certain most of her sadness had a different source than the death of the Ivy guy, so he decided to risk aggravating her a little in order to hopefully make her smile.

"Can you really think about _that_ right now?"

Damon smiled. A grumpy retort was good enough for a start.

"Obviously," he muttered against her skin with a smirk Elena could imagine only too well.

Carefully gathering her hair to one side, he planted open-mouthed kisses on her cheek and along her neck, successfully interrupting Elena's attempt to turn toward him with a glare.

"You need to stop doing that," she whispered, a little too breathlessly to sound convincing.

"Why?" Very lightly, Damon ran his fingers across her cleavage before letting them roam lower so boldly it caught Elena off guard.

"Damon!..."

She thrashed against him in an apparent effort to sit up, but he used the movement to his advantage, rolling her onto her back and trapping her underneath him instead.

"Elena!" His voice was cheerfully mocking and she actually did smile after looking up at him for a second with a stern expression on her face.

"If this is your idea of old-fashioned seduction, then it's not very subtle," she stated, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Your idea of torture isn't very subtle either," Damon quipped. "For how many more nights do you intend for us to be sleeping in one bed without doing anything other than sleeping?"

"Right now we're talking, not sleeping," Elena pointed out, reaching out and wrapping her hands around Damon's neck.

He smiled. "I know and it is _very_ enjoyable, however, there are other, even _more_ enjoyable things that we could be doing." He traced the outline of her lips with his fingertips. "And I'm hurt by your assumption that your mood isn't my primary concern," he added when Elena snorted under her breath.

"Because it is?"

"You said my feelings were off, not my humanity, so I don't think caring about how you feel is outside of the realm of possibility," Damon argued with a trace of humor in his voice, fumbling with the strap of Elena's nightdress.

He could tell her smile was still a bit desolate, but at least it seemed like he was succeeding in diverting her attention from her dreams of ordinary human life slipping through the reality's fingers yet again.

"I guess I deserved that," Elena said with a small sigh. "For you to say that you _care_ about me," she clarified when Damon seemed a little confused by her comment.

He considered her words for a moment and then returned her smile. "Well, that makes two of us. I probably deserved finding out that you only realized you loved me a few hours after seeing me naked."

Elena laughed and he felt a twinge of warmth in his chest, because this time there was more joy in her eyes when she smiled at him.

Elena smacked him playfully on the shoulder. "Your interpretation is _way_ off."

"It's a fact," Damon insisted, leaning down to trail kisses across her collarbones.

He smiled against her skin, intrigued by the realization that it wasn't her labored breathing but rather how the tension seemed to ease off her entire body that made him feel so happy inside.

Lazily running her fingers through Damon's damp hair, Elena bit back a smile when she felt him catch a strap of her nightdress between his teeth and drag it off her shoulder.

"Maybe we should give it a try? Maybe if I drank the rest of your blood..." Damon suddenly proposed, struck by a thought, lifting his head to look at Elena whose face fell a little.

She shook her head. "No, you know that for the cure to work you'd have to be the first person to drink my blood and you'd have to drink all of it." She paused, absently grazing his chest with her fingertips. "You said you didn't want the cure."

"You said I wanted it," Damon countered, glancing at her hand on his chest.

Elena's eyes flew to his when he caught her hand and pressed it to his heart.

"I remember saying I wanted to take it for us."

Elena smiled brokenly. "Doesn't matter now," she said barely above a whisper, her voice breaking.

"Don't say that." Damon cupped her face in his hands and her tears-filled eyes shifted back to him. "If the cure only works as a whole, they won't be able to do anything with that single vial of your blood either. The only thing they can do is use it as leverage, so there's a chance we can still get it back."

For a second Elena's eyes lit up, but then she sighed sadly. "Even so, they'd probably demand some nefarious things in exchange."

"Your tone seems to imply I wouldn't do whatever was necessary," Damon offered, wiggling his eyebrows to cheer her up.

"Damon!" Elena whispered in a scolding tone and then pulled his face down for a kiss.

Half-way through the kiss she seemed to have second thoughts and Damon smiled inwardly in amusement at the realization that she'd probably kissed him on an impulse, like she would've had under spell-free circumstances.

Ignoring her attempts to break the kiss, Damon pinned Elena's hands on either side of her head and kissed her fully on the mouth over and over again, his body pressing against hers.

Elena tried to remind herself that it wasn't the best idea, but Damon's kisses felt so passionate and sincere that all she could think about was that perhaps all the spell had done was plant a false conviction in his mind, make him think he didn't love her and the whole absorbing all the love out of someone aspect of it was just a ruse.

"I think I'm falling in love with you."

Elena froze, not sure if the words weren't just a figment of her imagination.

"It's true," Damon added, sensing her hesitation.

Elena's eyes fluttered open and she looked at Damon, searching his face for a confirmation and finding it so easily it made her feel scared that she might be wrong, that she might simply be seeing in his eyes what she wanted to see.

"How do you know?" Elena asked in a hushed tone, afraid to even blink to miss any second of this moment, her eyes locked with his when Damon pulled them upwards into the sitting position.

"Because..." He trailed off, his eyebrows furrowed.

It could be because of the spell, but he rather thought that it was because this feeling was impossible to close it in just a few words that was the reason why he didn't think he could find the right words to describe it. But he wanted to describe it for her. Just like he wanted to feel it.

Something warm seared through him, painful but not unpleasant, just the opposite, in fact. Damon repeated the words to himself just to check if it was really the realization that he _wanted_ to love her that ignited the feeling.

"Because I remember all the reasons why I loved you," he said at last, smiling at how simple and obvious this answer was.

Elena's mouth twitched into a nervous, happy smile, but she looked almost afraid to believe his words. "Damon, you don't have to-"

"They say you don't love anyone for any specific reasons, but I don't think that's true," Damon gently cut her off, pushing unruly strands of hair off Elena's eyes. She drew a breath and listened to him in silence, his voice growing simultaneously stronger and quieter with every sentence. "Even if you feel that immediate connection the moment you see someone, it's everything that happens afterwards that matters. I remember... I remember everything that you said to me, did for me. Your eyes when you looked at me. Everything you made me feel, everything you taught me." He took Elena's hands in his and squeezed them tightly, exchanging a warm smile with her. "Even if they really took my love for you away... I can't see how with all the memories, with you being you, being here, this love wouldn't come back to me. It's like... When we kiss, I can't feel anything else for you than what I know you feel for me. In those moments, I feel it's the same feeling."

"Even if you're just making a case for us to get back to making out, it's working," Elena said in a matching tone and then smiled an amused, feverishly happy smile that he returned.

"Is it?" Damon asked with a glimpse of mischief in his eyes.

Narrowing her eyes at him in mock exasperation, Elena abruptly leaned forward and kissed him, her hands falling softly onto his cheeks.

"When I think of love, I feel nothing," Damon said, not quite breaking the kiss, because his lips were hovering so close over hers that they were still touching. "But when I think of you, I feel everything."

Slowly, Elena's arms locked around him, her eyes not leaving his and they looked at each other for a few seconds before their lips met in a heated, dreamy kiss.

"You never heard what I said to you after I died, Elena," Damon said, sliding his hand into her hair and brushing his thumb across her cheek.

Elena's expression immediately changed at the recollection. She felt her heart break just thinking about those excruciating moments when she was sitting in the crypt, in the darkness, crying, choking on her whispered words, hopelessly pleading for him to come back.

"I know you were there. I couldn't feel you, but-"

"I touched your hair," Damon said, repeating the gesture.

Elena grimaced, blinking back the tears. "I knew that."

Damon leaned his forehead against hers and Elena instinctively closed her eyes, the memory seen through his eyes appearing in her mind:

" _You are by far the greatest thing to ever happen to me in my 173 years on this earth. The fact that I get to die knowing that I was loved, not just by anyone, by you, Elena Gilbert, that's the epitome of a fulfilled life. It was never gonna get any better than this. I peaked. I love you, Elena."_

Elena's eyes snapped open, filled with even more tears than in the memory.

"When we got back together, before I got memories back, you had to remember for both of us," she whispered feverishly, grabbing Damon's hands, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Now I can love for both of us."

Damon smiled faintly, leaning down to kiss her hands before letting go of them to take her face in his hands. "Elena, but that's what I'm trying to tell you." He slid his thumb across her trembling lips. "I love you."

xxxdelenaxxx

He couldn't get out of the house, he couldn't call anyone and his powers were being used to unseal the border between the world of the living and the world of the dead to bring back more insane heretics. Granted, the other fraction wasn't any better. That entire coven was messed up. All covens were. Magic was a messed up phenomenon to begin with. He was starting to see the appeal of being human and for the first time he felt like he understood why Damon wanted to take the cure.

"I hope it won't take too long," Enzo muttered, shooting Gretta an impatient glare. "I have things to do."

She continued stirring the blood in a pot, the fire underneath appearing out of nowhere, making the blood boil.

"It will take a mere-" Malcolm started, but then all of a sudden a blinding light blazed through the room.

Enzo's eyes widened at the sight of all the windows breaking, shattered glass crushing to the ground, the defeaning noise augmented by an earth-shaking gust of wind that dived into the pot, causing the blood to burst, but instead of it spilling all around the room, it seemed to disappear in thin air.

Lily, Gretta and Malcolm exchanged angry looks, but not without a glint of apprehension in their eyes.

"What just happened?" Enzo asked curiously.

"Someone hijacked the spell," Gretta said through her teeth, her eyes wandering around the room in an effort to come up with a solution, but judging from her expression it seemed like there was none.

"What does that mean?" Enzo continued, trying not to sound amused despite the idea sounding rather amusing to him.

"No one knew we were going to do it," Malcolm argued, giving Gretta a questioning look.

"One person did," Lily said evenly, glancing at Gretta who exhaled in frustration.

"That's not possible," Malcolm protested. "They cut his head off, there's no way-"

"He must've been hiding somewhere," Gretta said darkly, "and now with the power of the spell he'll be able to-"

"Wait," Enzo interrupted her, blinking in disbelief. "Who are you talking about?" He asked angrily even though he was quite sure he already knew the answer.

xxxdelenaxxx

His eyes snapped open and he looked at the ceiling, blinking a few times before his eyes adjusted to the darkness.

When they did, he looked down at the girl sleeping in his arms. Lifting his hand, he picked a single strand of her hair and pulled on it.

Elena grimaced in her sleep, snuggling closer to him.

Kai snickered to himself. That was going to be _so_ funny.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Thank you **sooo much** for all of your wonderful reviews! :):):)

 **Chapter 11**

When Elena woke up, Damon was nowhere to be found. She looked under every pillow and all over the room to check if he hadn't left her a note, but there was not a trace of any message, either in written form or in flower form, no mysterious boxes, no arrows made of bubbles or artificial snow on the floor, no gemstones in her shoes.

She perused through her books and the drawers and was going to check the bathroom mirror, but then Hope marched into the room, rubbing her eyes with one hand, her other hand firmly holding her Bear upside down.

"Elena, are we late?"

Elena smiled. "No, why?"

"The clock says it's nine o'clock and Damon said yesterday we were supposed to be at the docks at eight," Hope explained, pointing to the clock. "And eight is before nine."

Elena's head snapped in the direction of the clock. "It's nine already?"

Hope nodded drowsily.

Elena grimaced, now wondering even more where Damon might've gone. Maybe he just hadn't had the heart to wake her? Had gone to get some breakfast without waking her up? That seemed like the most plausible scenario, even though it was highly unlikely he'd have just let them miss their boat trip, especially that he knew quite a few... creative ways of waking her up pretty effectively, Elena thought, stifling a chuckle.

"Well, if it's nine, let's at least start getting ready, so when Damon comes back we'll be ready to go," Elena said, tucking her hair behind her ears and reaching for her phone. No messages.

"Is the boat going to leave without us?" Hope asked, but then broke into a run toward the balcony when she noticed a kite in the sky.

Holding onto her phone, Elena followed Hope and stepped outside. The day was beautiful and she smiled at the sight of the sea and drew a deep breath of fresh air.

"I don't think so," Elena replied, leaning over the balcony railing. "They have many boats there and they leave at different times, so-"

She stopped abruptly in mid-sentence, her lips immediately forming into a relieved smile at the sight of Damon. But her smile faltered as soon as she noticed that he wasn't alone.

The balcony was too high up and the street was too crowded and noisy to allow Elena hear the exact words, but if flirtatious looks and laughter were any indication, both Damon and the girl next to him seemed to be having a great time.

Biting her lip, Elena tried to tell herself that she was overreacting, but when the girl took Damon's phone and typed what was probably her number into it, Elena felt her face drain of all color.

She thought they had broken the spell yesterday. Or at least she thought that the worst was over. Damon had told her he loved her. He'd said he _wanted_ to love her and that he believed that this might've been the key to breaking the spell. He'd said that the majority of his earlier thoughts had been revolving around feeling like he didn't want to be in love, so breaking through that persistent conviction seemed like a very significant victory. They had spent most of the night talking about their future, trying to figure out the cure situation and kissing. Kissing a _lot_. Everything had seemed absolutely fine between them. So why was he now strolling up and down the pier flirting with strangers? It made no sense. She thought she should be feeling sad or angry, but she couldn't help feeling, most of all, utterly confused.

"Elena, your phone's ringing!" Hope said after watching Elena ignore the buzzing device in her hand for quite a while.

With a frown, Elena glanced at her phone, intending to dodge the call, but the name of the caller made her reconsider.

"Caroline," Elena said with a resigned sigh, turning away from the baluster, but then twirling back around, her frown deepening. Damon was apparently in no hurry to get back to their condo.

"The enthusiasm in your voice is unmistakable," Caroline said with a bite, but then sighed herself.

"Are you OK?" Elena inquired immediately, almost breaking her nails while digging them into the metal railing, her eyes fixed on Damon who seemed to be asking about the story behind the tattoo on the girl's arm.

"I found Klaus. It turned out he was only faking being affected by the spell. We flew back to Mystic Falls and he's supposed to talk to Lily today to find out what they're up to, because... did Stefan update you? She threatened us again," Caroline said, deciding to leave out the threats concerning their departed loved ones. Elena sounded gloomy enough without knowing about that.

"No, Stefan didn't call," Elena said absently.

Maybe the spell was fighting its way back in? Enzo had said it was like a virus, so it'd make sense. Then again, she couldn't shake off the impression that there was something odd about Damon's behavior, about his... body language, she realized. That was it. The way he walked, his gestures and smiles. They were all wrong.

"Does that make me a terrible person?" Caroline asked and Elena blinked, realizing that she'd missed some of Caroline's words.

"Of course not," she said, not sure if asking Caroline to repeat would help, since she could hardly concentrate on listening properly. That, and chances were Caroline couldn't have possibly done anything truly terrible, so her answer must have been right anyway.

"I just... You know like there are people who always make you feel like an idiot no matter what and then there are people who make you feel _awesome_ no matter what? I'm not saying Stefan makes me feel like an idiot, because he doesn't, but... he makes me feel like _me_ , and with Klaus I feel like a _better_ me, the me that I'd like to be. Or maybe... the me that I am, but don't really feel, believe that I am... most of the time, at least. Oh, I don't even know," Caroline huffed impatiently.

Leaning over the baluster so much that Hope grabbed the hem of her nightdress to catch her in case she'd fall over, Elena watched the girl wave a goodbye to Damon.

"I just _really_ like spending time with him, all of a sudden. Or maybe it's not sudden. I just never let myself think about that before. And it's all so easy, somehow," Caroline added after a pause in a lower voice. "We didn't kiss for the first time when my mom was dying and we didn't sleep with each other when I had my emotions off," she blurted out before falling silent for a few seconds.

It looked like Damon was going back to the condo, which calmed Elena's nerves enough to start listening to Caroline more carefully.

"He kissed me first, but... I kind of kissed him this morning and... He's staying at my house," Caroline continued in one breath, speaking so fast that Elena was getting a little lost in the whole story, "but _nothing_ happened. I mean, except for that kiss in the morning. And last night. So that... three times, I know, but-"

"Klaus is staying at your house?"

"Seriously, Elena?!" Caroline exclaimed in aggravation and Elena couldn't help feeling rather relieved at the note of rejuvenation in Caroline's voice. There was nothing as depressing as sad Caroline. "If I wanted to hear judgment in someone's voice I would've called Bonnie."

"I'm not judging you," Elena said with a grimace, walking back into the room, Hope tiptoeing after her. "I was just out of the loop for a few years and from what I remember there was something going on between you and Stefan."

Caroline was silent for a moment. "Well, that was five years ago," she replied succinctly.

"So what happened during these five years?" Elena asked as gently as she could and bit her lip when she heard Caroline snort wryly on the other end of the line.

"Do you want to know what happened? Nothing happened. Five years ago I told him I wasn't ready for all this and... that was it. He didn't even ask me out once since then."

"But... didn't you kind of told him not to?" Elena pointed out, glancing at Hope who had run into the bathroom to brush her teeth.

"So what? Didn't it cross his mind I might've changed my mind at some point? How many times did you tell Damon to get lost?"

Elena was about to protest the word choice, but then the door opened and Damon walked inside.

"Can I call you back later?" Elena asked, her forehead wrinkling in confusion.

Damon sipping chocolate milk and munching on jelly beans wasn't something she was used to seeing.

At the sound of the door opening, Hope ran back into the room with a smile that quickly turned into a baffled frown. She stopped abruptly in her tracks.

"Is everything alright?" Elena asked, putting her phone away and giving Damon a questioning look.

She took a step forward, but something in Damon's gaze stopped her from walking up to him.

"Sure," he said with an odd smile. "Are we going swimming today?"

"Are your new friends coming?" Elena asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

She looked at Damon unblinkingly, thinking that if he'd start teasing her about being jealous it'd be a sign she was misinterpreting what she'd seen. Unfortunately, he chose to pretend he had no idea what she was talking about.

"I'm going to take a shower and we're ready to go," he said, disappearing into the bathroom.

Hope shifted her eyes to Elena, who clenched her jaw, grabbed Hope's hand and went to the other bathroom with her, so Hope could finish brushing her teeth since she was in the middle of doing it, a toothbrush in her hand and toothpaste all over her teeth.

There was something clearly wrong with Damon and Elena feared that perhaps only now the spell truly kicked in, somehow. Perhaps that's why everything had been going so well... up till now.

Hope rinsed her mouth and put the toothbrush away, finally able to speak.

"Who was that?" She asked, wrinkling her nose.

Maybe the spell was getting stronger with time-

Hope's words shook her out of her reverie and Elena blinked in confusion.

"That man in the room you talked to," Hope clarified or at least she thought she did.

Elena stared at her, perplexed for a few more moments before she felt a wave of cold wash over her. "I only talked to Damon," she said under her breath, stepping closer to Hope.

"That wasn't Damon," Hope said with a mixture of confusion and amusement in her voice, apparently assuming Elena was trying to take her in.

Elena felt as if the ground suddenly disappeared from under her feet, her mind reeling. "You mean... that man I just talked to, the man we just saw, wasn't Damon?"

Hope shook her head.

Elena slowly exhaled and then drew a neverending breath, feeling tears gather in her eyes.

She felt like she'd known that from the moment he'd walked into the room. She had looked at him, but he hadn't looked at her, not like Damon would've looked at her.

Elena grasped Hope's hands. "Whom did you see?" She asked under her breath, her heart hammering in her chest. " That man, what did he look like?"

xxxdelenaxxx

Jeremy half-hoped everyone would be asleep when he got home in the morning, but of course that'd be too much to ask for.

As soon as he walked into the boarding house, he was greeted by the sight of Sarah and Stefan in the living room and although they both seemed to be in great moods, a glimpse of melancholy in Sarah's eyes made it clear that she wasn't happy about his "short visit" to Bonnie turning out to last all the way until morning.

He hadn't been planning on that, but somehow they had started to talk and it'd felt like at the very beginning, back when everything was simple, back when they had been spending all of their time on endless conversations.

They had fallen asleep among laughter and dust-scented grimoires and when he had woken up it was already nine in the morning.

"I hope you figured something out." With a sigh, Jeremy slumped down onto the couch.

"Not really," Sarah said, running her fingers across a collection of faded photographs.

"We were just looking through some family albums," Stefan added with a weak smile.

"Well, better put them away before Caroline gets here," Jeremy said, just in time for the door to burst open and Caroline to storm in.

"Seriously?!" She exclaimed as soon as she entered the room and realized with lightning speed that they weren't doing anything productive.

Jeremy stifled a chuckle.

"I hope we haven't missed any great disaster," Stefan said calmly.

"How is that funny?" Caroline asked with a grimace. "Your mother and her friends threatened to turn heaven into hell and you're just sitting here, sorting out daguerreotypes?"

"These are polaroids, actually," Stefan said, looking up at her with bright eyes and expecting a similar look from her, but either because she wasn't in the mood for humorous exchanges or for some other reasons, Caroline's matter-of-fact expression didn't change.

"I honestly don't think my dad is in heaven," Jeremy muttered with a frown, looking away toward the window.

Caroline rolled her eyes. "I meant _heaven_ as a metaphor for wherever all the dead people are."

"It'd be kind of weird if they were all in the same place," Sarah pointed out with a pensive frown.

Caroline blinked, fighting very hard an urge to start shouting at them, because sparking off a pointless philosophical discussion was the last of her intentions.

"Why aren't you out doing something?" Caroline demanded.

"Bonnie and I have spent an entire night reading grimoires," Jeremy said, catching Sarah's gaze when she looked at him.

He held her gaze and his openness seemed to soften her expression a little.

"Great," Caroline gave him a thin smile of artificial appreciation. "What for?" She added acidly.

Sarah bit back a smile.

"Well," Jeremy's eyebrows knitted in thought as he tried to come up with an answer. "Bonnie found a new grimoire and we read through it to see if there was something interesting in it."

"Right," Caroline snorted mirthlessly. "Let's just grab something random to read and who knows, maybe we'll find a solution to all our problems in there. Sounds like we have a plan for this afternoon."

"It does seem like we're a little stuck," Stefan said after a pause, glancing at Jeremy and Sarah who both seemed to agree with him. "We have to wait for their next move."

"No, we don't," Caroline announced in mock joyousness. "Klaus suspected from the beginning they were up to something more and I just got a text from Enzo-" She trailed off when her phone started buzzing in her hand. "Elena's calling me back," she muttered to herself accepting the call. "El-" For a few seconds Caroline listened to Elena in silence. And then she screamed so loud everyone straightened up. "What?!"

xxxdelenaxxx

If she was a vampire she could've just snapped his neck. That would've bought her some time to think about what to do next. She didn't think she could effectively keep up the charade and pretend believing it was Damon for very long.

Because it wasn't Damon. It was Kai.

Elena still couldn't get over the thought, a part of her refusing to believe it. Wringing her hands, she tried to keep them from shaking, but she couldn't calm down ever since Hope had confirmed the worst case scenario.

She couldn't understand how it had happened. When? He must've somehow taken over Damon's mind in his sleep, but how was it possible? Kai had used to haunt her dreams, he'd seemed to have been hiding in her mind. So was it all because, in order to avoid nightmares, she had been sleeping in Damon's mind? Maybe the connection had made it possible for Kai to slip into Damon's head, somehow?

Bustling around the bathroom and finishing brushing her and Hope's hair after they had gotten dressed, Elena couldn't stop worrying. She was even more worried than she was afraid. Was Damon trapped, like she had been when Katherine had taken over her? Kai didn't know where his own body was, so he couldn't make the spell permanent and take over Damon completely. There was still time.

"What is taking you so long?"

Kai called out from the room in Damon's voice and Elena gritted her teeth tempted to try breaking his neck anyway.

Hope watched her with worried eyes. It sounded like a fun game at first, pretending that they didn't know that man wasn't Damon, but it looked like Elena was sad and frightened and it made Hope feel afraid too.

Wiping the tears off her eyes, Elena took a deep breath, bracing herself for walking into the room and...

She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned inwardly. She couldn't do it. She was too petrified and too worried about Damon to concentrate on setting up any elaborate traps. Not to mention that it didn't look like pretending would help. She wouldn't get any information out of Kai that way anyway and could only end up playing into his hands and eventually putting herself and Hope in more danger. Going anywhere with Kai wasn't a good idea.

"Hope, stay here until I come back for you, OK?" Elena said, bending on one knee in front of Hope and looking her straight in the eye.

Hope didn't seem to like the idea. "I want to go with you."

"It will be better if I go alone," Elena insisted. "Please, wait here, alright? It will be safer that way."

"Is he a villain?" Hope asked, wrinkling her nose. "I've never met a villain, but I'm not scared."

Elena smiled at her weakly, thinking that Damon would have a ball with Hope's claim that she's never met a villain.

"I know you're not scared. That's why I'm asking you to wait here, not run away anywhere."

This seemed to do the trick, because Hope considered the words for a moment and then nodded. Elena hugged her and then stormed out of the bathroom, grabbing a pen from under the mirror in the hallway on her way into the room.

Kai was sitting on the bed, putting Damon's shoes on. The balcony door was still wide open and Elena glanced at the sunlight flooding in without stopping in her tracks. Kai looked up, but before he had the time to say anything, Elena stabbed his leg with a pen. He screamed.

Taking advantage of the brief moment of surprise, Elena tugged the daylight ring off Kai's finger.

Hope, who was listening by the door jumped away from it at the sound of a very loud scream that seemed to tear through the walls.

Kai launched himself into a sunless corner of the room, breathing heavily.

"You think you're so clever?" He hissed, watching the skin heal and then shifting his angry gaze to Elena. "Let's see who's going to win this one," he said with a sneer and then suddenly jumped right into the sunlight, clenching his teeth and letting the body he was in burn in it.

Elena's eyes widened in dismay.

"Now that I'm in this world, I can jump into any body I want," Kai said, indicating the window and the crowded street below, Damon's face becoming unrecognizable in the flames.

With a helpless shriek, Elena leaped toward him, pushed him back into the shadows and threw the daylight ring at him.

Kai snickered, pulling himself upwards and sitting with his back against the wall, waiting for the burns to heal. "Well, that was a waste of time on your part," he said, amused, sliding Damon's daylight ring back onto his finger. "I suggest you'll be nicer to me from now on, otherwise I may make you a witness to a rather unsavory display of your boyfriend's body parts bursting in every direction. Have you ever watched someone swallow explosives? I bet it looks cool."

"What do you want?" Elena asked through her teeth, glaring at him.

Kai jumped back to his feet, smoothing out the clothes he was wearing. "I was trying to find another shirt, but guess what, they are all black. What's the point of having ten shirts that look exactly the same?" He sighed. "I'll have to buy some. Did you see Hawaiian shirts anywhere around here?"

"What do you want!" Elena screamed.

Kai grimaced, covering his ears with his hands. "Careful, unless you wouldn't mind a deaf boyfriend." He pouted, pointing to the tears in Elena's eyes. "That is so disgusting. I'm glad I managed to overcome that... Luke syndrome," he laughed, "so this stuff is not oozing out of my eyes anymore. Yuck." He shuddered. "OK, now to answer your question." He smiled and started walking toward Elena, his smile turning into a grin when she started backing away from him. "Come on, Elena, I thought you liked this body?" He shrugged, tilting his head to the side. "I don't like when people move while I'm talking to them," he said, wiggling his finger on her and then in one rapid movement he zoomed in front of Elena, pulled open the nearest drawer, grabbed Elena's hand, pushed it inside the drawer and slammed the drawer shut, crushing her fingers.

Elena's scream terrified Hope even more than the scream of the man who had stolen Damon's clothes. She drew a sharp breath, hugging her Bear to herself. " _The more afraid you are, the braver you need to be."_ Her dad's words echoed in her head and after a moment of standing very still, she made up her mind and ran to the door.

"I'm sorry, did you say you wanted to be a surgeon? Guess that's not going to happen now," Kai said with a chuckle, taking a step back and watching Elena stagger while holding her mauled hand with her other one, tears streaming down her face. She looked as if she was about to faint.

"Elena!" Hope ran into the room, her eyes widening at the sight of Elena's broken, bloodied fingers.

Pain and her bleeding hand immediately became Elena's secondary concern and she hurled herself to the side to stand in between Hope and Kai who gave her a pitying smile.

"You look just like my little sister Olivia," Kai said in a mockingly friendly voice, angling his neck to look at Hope who was looking up at him with a very upset expression on her face. "I tried to kill her when she was your age, but she escaped. She did die, however, a couple of years ago. All is well that ends well, eh?" He asked in a chipper voice.

"Get away from her," Elena said in a low, firm voice, shielding Hope.

Kai rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to speak, but then his face contorted in a grimace and he crashed to the floor.

Elena gasped.

"I envy your optimism if you really believe you can survive in this world as humans," Enzo said grouchily, picking up a syringe he'd stabbed Kai with, a mixture of vervain and magic hopefully strong enough to keep him unconscious for a few hours.

Elena exhaled in relief and closed her eyes for a second to collect herself, the pain from her hand radiating throughout her entire body. She opened her eyes with a grimace.

"I'm _this_ close to forgiving you for turning Bonnie into a vampire. Don't ruin it," she said shakily, but before Enzo could throw a witty comeback at her, she fainted.

"Elena!" Hope exclaimed worriedly, leaping forward when Enzo managed to catch Elena before she fell to the floor.

"Great," Enzo mumbled and then looked at Hope. "Are you going to faint too? Because I can't carry three unconscious people all at the same time. I mean I can, but then I wouldn't have anyone to talk to."

"I'm not going to faint," Hope said resolutely, shaking her head. "Elena's hand is bleeding," she said, watching Enzo put both Elena's and the scary man's bodies over his shoulders.

"Well, first-aid will have to wait until we're out of here, because soon we may have even more of even less amiable company," Enzo said with a frown.

Misinterpreting Enzo scanning the room for him trying to decide what things they should take with them, Hope wrinkled her nose and then quickly collected all the phones, swept them along with car keys into Elena's purse, grabbed the Harley-Davidson Bear and the Surgeon Bear and ran back to Enzo.

"Do you really need two of these?" Enzo asked, raising his eyebrows, watching Hope struggle a little to carry two Bears and a purse at the same time.

"This one is mine and this one is Elena's," Hope explained, pointing to each Bear with her chin.

"What about Damon's bear?" Enzo asked, kicking the door open and walking into the corridor.

"He didn't get one," Hope said, tiptoeing next to him, trying to support and cover Elena's hand with the help of both Bears to awkwardly keep the blood from flowing. "Do you know where Damon is?" She asked, pressing the garage button when they got into a fortunately empty elevator.

Enzo glanced at Damon's body flung over his shoulder and then looked at Hope. "You know that's not Damon?"

Hope nodded remembering that Elena was also surprised she was able to see that, but then it suddenly dawned on her what had happened. "He took over Damon's body! My aunt Rebekah's not in her body too," Hope continued before Enzo had a chance to comment on the alarming speed with which she arrived at the correct conclusion, "but that's because she wanted to be human and in her own body she was a vampire, so until she can figure out how she can be human in her body she has to be in someone else's body."

Enzo stared at Hope until the elevator's door slided open. "Only now am I beginning to realize I had a pretty happy childhood," he muttered under his breath, heading toward his car.

xxxdelenaxxx

When Elena opened her eyes, she found herself in a place she remembered from last night when she'd fallen asleep in Damon's mind and he'd imagined for them a white boat adrift on an emerald green sea with pastel green sky above them, just to make her laugh after she'd humorously complained about the not matching colors.

She glanced at her hand. There was no blood on it. In this inner dream-world it looked alright and Elena bit her lip at the sad realization that being a doctor, just like being a mother, was yet another dream that wouldn't come true. Soon she'd regain consciousness and the bleak reality would engulf her again. And yet...

" _I want you to get everything you're looking for."_

Standing up from the boat's wooden deck, Elena smiled to herself faintly, the memory never failing to cheer her up, give her hope, as if this wish had magic on its own, as if she _had to_ get everything she was looking for one day, somehow, because he'd said so on that dark, misty night when they had met for the first time.

"Elena, are you alright?"

He wasn't a figment of her imagination, she could tell by the anxious tone of his voice and despite an immediate twinge of pain caused by the thought that they'd be back, even if only temporarily, to seeing each other in dreams, she was glad and relieved that they'd at least have that for the time being.

Elena's face brightened and just like she expected she found herself in Damon's arms as soon as she turned around.

"You figured it all out so quickly," Damon whispered in a warm voice, kissing her hair.

"Actually, Hope figured it out for me," Elena said with a broken smile, drawing back and cupping Damon's face in her hands, marveling at the surprising realization that it didn't feel the way it had felt during those five years of her sleep; it felt as if they were both really here. "She saw it wasn't you right away."

"Lucky kid. That's a better magical trait to have than sporting claws with curved fingernails," Damon said with a brief, humorless smile, his eyebrows furrowed. "What happened?" He asked and Elena was about to tell him about Enzo, but then a gust of wind drowned their voices and Damon's embrace tightened around her.

They looked up at the darkening sky, at the horizon that seemed to be closing in on them as if they were caught in an illustration and huge, tall, black pages were folding over one another, towering over them.

"What's happening?" Elena whispered in bewilderment.

She tried to will a change of scenery, but no matter how much she concentrated on it, she could change nothing.

"You need to get out of here, Elena."

"I don't think shaking me awake is going to help," Elena said, smiling faintly at Damon, whose eyes were wandering all over her face as if he was trying to come up with a method to make her regain her consciousness. "Besides, I'm not leaving you alone here, especially if a nightmare is coming."

With a resigned smile, Damon pulled her even closer to him and Elena wrapped her arms around him. Somehow she didn't think they were in any real danger. They were either in her mind, or in his mind... or somewhere in between. Either way, it wasn't a real world.

The clouds above them were thickening, becoming blindingly black and the wind grew stronger and stronger, but Elena still refused to believe anything _real_ was going to happen. Holding onto Damon's arms, she felt that he was trying to conjure up a different landscape, but to no avail.

The wind was so strong they couldn't move. They tilted their heads barely enough for their foreheads to touch, so they could look at each other-

Their eyes the last glimmers of light they could see in the all-encompassing darkness.

xxxdelenaxxx

"What the hell?" Enzo muttered, perplexed when Hope alerted him that Elena wasn't breathing.

She didn't lose that much blood and people weren't dying of hand injuries, were they? On the second thought he wasn't absolutely sure about that, but-

Then suddenly something occurred to him and he squeezed his eyes shut with a groan. "Blasted idiot," Enzo whispered angrily.

Hope looked at him and tried to listen very carefully, but she still wasn't sure what he meant when he added:

"He didn't seal back the passage after escaping through it."


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Thank you **so much** for all the amazing reviews! *hugs*

 _Very important announcement:_ **scarlett2112** has recently started posting her wonderfully written and brilliant new story **The Unforgiven** , in which Damon is a shark biologist! Needless to say, it's a must-read :)

 _Less important announcement:_ there's just going to be one more chapter after this one! I mean, one more chapter before a mini-hiatus ;) I'll be going on vacation in September and since I may not have the internet access and/or time to write, chapter 13 will be posted in a week or so, but for chapter 14 I'll probably have to make you wait until the last week of September. I'm sorry about that and thank you in advance for your patience :]

 **Chapter 12**

It didn't feel like falling asleep or losing consciousness, but rather like breaking through endless layers of black cellophane paper whirling around them.

Suddenly, the darkness fell away and they found themselves in a lush green forest, bright sunlight painting the leaves above them yellow and gold. The landscape was so beautiful it looked almost unreal.

Not letting go of Elena's hand clasped tightly in his, Damon took a quick look around, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Can't control anything here," he murmured, after trying to manipulate their surroundings the way they had been used to doing it in their imaginary dream world during Elena's long sleep.

"You mean you didn't wish for this to happen?" Elena asked in mock confusion, standing on her tiptoes and pressing a sweet, lingering kiss to his lips.

Damon gave her a lop-sided smile, his frown disappearing. "More or less," he said with a speculative wink, sliding his hand into Elena's hair and capturing her mouth in a more heated kiss, gathering her into his arms in one smooth, tender movement that sent miniscule shivers across her body.

Elena leaned into him, anchoring her hands on his shoulders and kissing him back, smiling against his lips when she felt him lose his breath.

"It's a proof enough we're not in the real world, because no one's yelling it's not time for that," Damon muttered against Elena's lips and she laughed briefly under her breath before kissing him again, slowly.

"It feels so real," she suddenly said, drawing back to look at him. "Not like in dreams," Elena added in breathless wonder, running her fingertips across his face.

"It does feel real," Damon confirmed with a small smile, covering her hand with his and bringing it to his lips to press a kiss to her knuckles. "But we have to be in a dream."

"Whose dream? If we can't control any of this," Elena said, glancing around.

"This is not a dream."

Damon and Elena looked at each other and then turned around.

A few feet away from them there was a man clad in elegant but casual clothes, his black, slightly gray hair glimmering in the sunlight.

He gave them a cautious smile. "Welcome."

"At least he doesn't look like a product of Kai's imagination," Damon mumbled to Elena while giving the stranger an artificial smile.

"Says someone who thought up the Atlantic ocean made of rose petals," Elena said in a matching tone and flashing a matching smile.

"It was the Pacific ocean and I certainly look like someone who could come with that," Damon said, a little offended.

The stranger took a few steps toward them. "Please, come with me," he said, undeterred and apparently even slightly amused by their hushed exchange.

"I'll be honest. Making it seem like you were expecting us is kind of creepy," Damon said, squinting.

Elena stifled a smile, sliding her fingers in between his, thinking that she could deal with nightmares as long as they were about getting lost in sunny forests and meeting kind strangers while holding hands with Damon.

"I wasn't expecting you specifically," the man said, taking another step toward them. "But people come here all the time. I'm used to greeting newcomers."

"Newcomers?" Elena echoed. "I'm sorry, but... could you tell us where we are?"

"Yeah," Damon grimaced, looking the man up and down, trying to decide if he was trustworthy. Consulting Elena about this made no sense, because she thought everyone was trustworthy until they proved her _very_ wrong. "Our GPS went all funky after we took an unplanned detour trying to avoid running over a chipmunk."

The man smiled with some sort of a benevolent understanding that Damon wasn't sure he liked.

"I see. Well, many roads lead here, I'm sure, but as for your question... I'm afraid I can't give you a specific name. This is the penultimate stop in everyone's life journey."

"Nope. Doesn't look like Vegas to me at all," Damon said in a wry tone.

"I'm sorry, but..." Elena interjected, squeezing Damon's hand to suggest a more diplomatic approach. "Why are we here? Are we in your mind? Who are you?"

"My mind?" The man laughed a little. "This place is as mine as it is yours. I came here just like you did." He paused before adding softly. "When I died."

Damon and Elena stared at him, rendered speechless by the revelation, but only for a few seconds.

"But... we're not dead," Elena said with a small, nervous smile, glancing at Damon who seemed more annoyed than worried, looking around in apparent attempt to decide what to do next, because they clearly couldn't expect much help from someone who had even the most basic facts wrong.

The man smiled, unfazed by their reaction. "Yes, that's what everyone says. At first."

xxxdelenaxxx

"You know, pretending not to care is rather difficult when in the span of five minutes you receive seven phone calls and eighteen text messages," Klaus said, strolling into the boarding house and glancing over his shoulder at Jeremy who closed the door behind him.

"You were already at Lily's?" Caroline asked, jumping to her feet.

Klaus stopped upon entering the living room, glancing at Elena who was lying unconscious on the couch.

"That'd make a good restaurant name," Bonnie observed in a tone that now occupied a very high position on Caroline's _things that annoy me most_ list.

"No, but I was _close_ ," Klaus replied with a small smirk, clasping his hands behind his back.

Shifting his eyes between them, Stefan frowned noticing Caroline making an effort not to smile at... whatever she was finding amusing at the moment, because Stefan didn't think anything funny was being said.

"No worries, they'll be here soon enough," Enzo said flippantly, flinging his feet on the coffee table.

Bonnie grabbed her phone and took a picture of it. Enzo gave her a confused look.

"I'm going to show that to Damon when he comes back," Bonnie said, saving the picture.

"He got some mud on the carpet too," Stefan added, pointing to the other side of the room.

Bonnie lifted her hand with the phone and snapped another picture.

"Really? After I saved everyone?" Enzo asked, narrowing his eyes at Bonnie who was sitting on the other end of the same couch.

" _Everyone_ is a bit of an exaggeration," Caroline retorted with a thin smile. "Not to mention _save_ being an exaggeration, seeing how Damon's being possessed by Kai, Elena is unconscious and Hope wants to be a witchpire when she grows up."

Klaus' eyes lit up at the mentioning of Hope's name and he turned around at the sound of her voice.

"Daddy!"

"If you can't change who you are, embrace it." Enzo extended his arms in a gesture of mock hopelessness. "I was just trying to seem happy about my life."

Caroline rolled her eyes.

"Guess what! Sarah can throw pancakes _that_ high in the air!" Hope said, running to Klaus and jumping into his arms while trying to demonstrate a pancake flying really far away from a pan.

"Well, breakfast _is_ ready if anyone's interested," Sarah said with a small smile that Jeremy returned, despite feeling annoyed by Enzo spending a little too much time talking to her since his arrival and Sarah not appearing irritated enough by that.

"How was your trip?" Klaus asked cheerfully and Caroline watched him somewhat baffled or perhaps simply caught off guard by the sight of him holding a child and not being bothered by powdered sugar being transferred from Hope's hands onto his clothes, face and hair.

"Best vacation _ever_!" Hope exclaimed with such enthusiasm that it seemed to, in turn, catch Klaus a little off guard.

He simultaneously looked very happy to hear that and just a tiny bit jealous, which Caroline thought made for a rather amusing combination.

"But Elena's not waking up," Hope added after listing in one breath all the highlights of the trip from bumper cars to sand castles. She looked at Elena over her shoulder. "And Damon's missing."

"We locked Damon, well, Kai up in the basement for now," Caroline said with a sigh.

Enzo snorted humorlessly. "Right, because your fancy cell is going to contain someone who absorbed magic from one of the most powerful spells."

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you have a better idea? Because I must've missed it," Caroline snapped with an irritated huff. "And what are you doing here anyway? On which side you're on?"

"On the winning side," Enzo said, widening his eyes at her as if the answer was obvious.

Caroline turned away from him.

"Well, we're dazzled by your optimism," Sarah said evenly, leaning against the side of the couch.

Enzo tilted his head to the side, a smirk flitting across his face. To Jeremy's umbrage, Sarah seemed to smile back.

"Did you figure out why Elena's not breathing and not waking up even though she isn't dead?" Caroline asked brusquely, addressing Bonnie whose eyes were glued to her phone.

She wasn't expecting an actual answer as much as a reaction, _any_ reaction, so she was quite mystified when Bonnie did give her a reply.

"During those five years when they were seeing each other only in their minds, Damon and Elena's minds developed an ability to merge. They created a _merge path_ , so at some point they didn't even have to actively make any sort of connection. Their minds are always open to one another, so when they fall asleep or lose consciousness they're automatically reunited in their heads."

Jeremy leaned over Bonnie from behind, curious to see what she was doing in her phone while explaining all that. "Bonnie found a grimoire on mind connections. We read it last night."

"How convenient," Caroline said, narrowing his eyes at Bonnie and Jeremy. "Do we seriously have time for that?"

"I thought we already figured out why Elena's unconscious." Enzo pointed out, helping himself to a candy bowl. "Kai must've been hiding in her subconscious during those five years that she was asleep and since Damon and Elena's minds were connected, when he hijacked the spell to unseal the passage between the afterlife and this world, he had a choice of jumping into either Elena or Damon."

"But since he absorbed all the magic instead of using it to open and then close the portal, the passageway was left open and it probably sucked in both Elena's and Damon's... souls, spirits, whatever," Jeremy said gloomily, squinting at the maps Bonnie was looking through on her phone.

Caroline wrinkled her forehead, trying to remember when they had drawn all of these conclusions, but then Bonnie answered her silent question for her.

"You were on the phone when we talked about that."

Klaus glanced at Caroline while placing Hope back on her feet when she said she wanted to go get her and Elena's bears to show him.

"So how do we get them out?" Caroline asked, inwardly commending herself for becoming better and better at not getting too miffed at Bonnie's tone of voice. "And what do you even mean by _sucked in_? Sucked in _where_? If they aren't dead, how could they be sucked into the place where dead people are? I don't get it."

"You and me both," Enzo said, offering a candy to Bonnie who ignored him.

"So... are we going to suck them back in here and then close the passage?" Sarah asked, not sure if applying logic to such a spectacularly irrational set of circumstances made sense, but developing some kind of a plan seemed like the best option anyway.

"We'd have to absorb a lot of magic to be able to close the passage," Enzo murmured dejectedly.

Without lifting her head, Bonnie's eyes darted to Enzo. "We?" She asked, raising her eyebrows. "You think you're a witch just because some deranged psychopaths turned you into one?"

"I'm open to suggestions. Is there any particular grimur- grimoore- grimoire I should read first?" He asked with a smile.

Bonnie tilted her head to the side, giving him a narrowed-eyed look. "Yeah, and there's a certification exam you have to take too."

Enzo bit back a smirk. "Looks like I'm in need of a tutor."

"What about the sucking Elena and Damon back in part?" Jeremy asked, interrupting the exchange that was getting too absurdly flirtatious for his taste.

Bonnie sighed.

"I don't like this answer," Caroline said, wrinkling her nose.

"This is my Bear and this is Elena's Bear," Hope said, running back into the room carrying both bears.

She stopped next to the couch where Elena was and slid her phone in her dress pocket. "She may want to try calling us," Hope explained matter-of-factly to Jeremy who arched an eyebrow, giving her an amused smile.

"I wanted an Elsa Bear, but Damon said this one is more _badass_ ," Hope said, running to Klaus and turning the Bear around to look at it. She smiled at her Bear. "Dad, can I stay with Damon and Elena for... three more years?" She asked after a moment of consideration, apparently having decided on the perfect duration of her stay. "Damon read _all_ the Barbie books!" She added enthusiastically and Caroline tried not to laugh when Klaus blinked and immediately replied in a perfectly genial voice:

"And just like that, the answer is incontestably a _no_."

Hope pouted, but then giggled when she realized Klaus wasn't being entirely serious.

"What did you mean when you said they'd be here soon?" Stefan asked and everyone in the room fell silent, the question reverting the mood to a more serious and somber one and only at the sound of Stefan's voice Caroline realized that he'd been oddly quiet all day... or at least for the better part of the day...

She swallowed, suddenly wondering if he could've overheard her calling Klaus earlier today and possibly saying some casually silly things like: _"I kissed you in the morning by accident."_

"I let them know about Kai taking over Damon," Enzo said lightly.

Caroline widened her eyes at him. "You did _what_?!"

"Now you have _leverage_ , something you didn't have before. Kai absorbed the spell that they need to bring their companions back," Enzo continued.

"So what? We can't give them Kai's body, because it's not Kai's body!" Caroline huffed in exasperation.

"Do we actually want them to bring their companions back?" Sarah asked, giving Enzo a dubious look.

"No, but let's worry about it later," he said with a shrug.

"Awesome strategy," Sarah said, narrowing her eyes at him.

Jeremy walked across the room to sit closer to Sarah.

"We have to put Kai back in his body," Bonnie interjected in a low voice, staring into the distance.

"Do we even know where he's buried?" Caroline asked with a grimace. "And even assuming he'll happily jump back into his own body. How does that solve anything? We have to-" She stopped herself in mid-sentence, glancing at Hope and then instead of saying the words, making a throat-cutting gesture she couldn't see.

"That's kind of the state he's in now," Jeremy observed dryly. "Didn't quite work the first time, obviously."

"That's because he inserted himself into Elena's magical coma," Enzo said, smoothing out a silver candy wrap and tossing it onto the table. "Before we do it again, we have to make sure he'll have nowhere to hide."

"But how do we bring Damon and Elena back?" Stefan asked, shifting his eyes to Bonnie and Caroline had an unpleasant impression that he was avoiding looking at her.

"There are two ways to do that," Bonnie said matter-of-factly which caused Caroline to take a double-take if she was really, finally speaking in a non-sardonic manner. Bonnie drew a breath and then slowly exhaled. "Both are bad."

xxxdelenaxxx

Damon and Elena weren't entirely convinced it was a good idea to accept the stranger's invitation and follow him, but with only a forest stretching in all directions and the inconvenient inability to have any influence over the spiritual world they were in, they decided it was the most rational course of action for now, especially that the man at least seemed friendly enough not to lead them straight into a trap.

He said his name was Desmond and that he was running a _welcome inn_ by the river which Elena found intriguing and Damon sinister.

"Either way, he's insane, and that's still the best case scenario," Damon whispered to Elena on their way toward the place that Desmond had reassured them was worth visiting even if they didn't want to believe what he was telling them.

"How is him telling us we're dead and in some kind of a purgatory more insane than the actual truth?" Elena argued in a hushed voice, lacing her hand through Damon's arm. "If we told him the entire back story of how we found ourselves here, I'm sure he'd think we were insane."

Damon turned his head to look at Elena, her hair catching sun rays, the color of her lips the most exquisite shade of red and against the green, lavish backdrop she looked so much like a painting in motion, her dark brown eyes sparkling when she shifted her gaze to him, sensing his stare.

"What is it?" She asked in mock-impatience, a trace of amusement in her voice.

Damon's mouth twitched into a brief, roguish smile. He quickly leaned in and kissed her. "As long as you are real, I can live in any unreal world."

Elena smiled, leaning her head against Damon's shoulder, but then abruptly straightening up. "What about the spell?" She asked, struck by the thought.

Damon stopped in his tracks. Last night he'd felt like he'd overcome all the barriers anyway, but now in addition to that he also felt like he was able to _understand_ all of his feelings again. "I think it's gone," he said after a longer pause, his eyebrows knitted together, but Elena's smile turned into frown when she noticed he must've been thinking about something more than just the spell.

She was about to ask him about it, but then Damon suddenly pulled his ring off his finger. Elena's eyes widened in dismay, but to her relief followed by puzzlement, nothing happened.

Damon glanced at the sun and then at Elena who blinked repeatedly, watching him trying to make his fangs elongate, but to no avail.

"You're human," Elena whispered with a disbelieving smile that faltered a little after a moment. "What if we really are dead?"

Damon gave Elena a horrified look that caused her anxiety to rise, but only until he twirled her around and pulled her into his arms with a crooked smile.

"If death means frolicking with you in a quaint little town for the rest of eternity, count me in," he said, brushing kisses across her lips before clasping her hand in his to catch up with Desmond who continued onward.

Elena was about to question at least the quaint aspect of it, but when the town that soon came into view proved nothing short of quaint and beautiful, she smiled to herself.

"Not to hurt your feelings, but this is not the most popular venue around here, is it?" Damon said when Desmond led them into a completely empty, dimly lit restaurant on the ground floor of his inn.

Desmond chuckled under his breath, glancing at them over his shoulder. "Well, it's 5am."

"Oh, there is _time_ in the afterlife?" Damon made an impressed face. "How disappointing," he muttered, glancing at Elena who was silently trying to communicate to him that being nicer to their mysterious host wouldn't hurt.

"Not at all," Desmond said with a shake of his head. "It's a very useful organizational mechanism. You can celebrate your birthday without getting old." He smiled and Elena smiled back, finding his smile both contagious and... familiar?

She looked around the restaurant trying to figure out the strange impression.

"Personally, I'd recommend a table outside," Desmond said, opening the door that was leading to the patio.

He held the glass door open for them, letting them walk through it, telling them to watch their feet because of a small, uneven step and doing it in such a natural yet caring way that Damon thought that perhaps Elena had a point wishing to give the stranger a chance before he'd prove to be a bloodthirsty, angry wizard.

"This is beautiful!" Elena gasped, amazed by the breathtaking sight of a seemingly limitless river shimmering in front of them, mirroring the sky and sparkling beautifully in the sunlight.

Desmond smiled, apparently very glad that the view met with appreciation. He invited them to sit down and left to bring them something to drink, despite being assured it wasn't necessary.

"This is very beautiful," Elena repeated when they were left alone outside.

She propped her chin on her hands and looked at the lake.

"Better than New York?" Damon muttered into her hair, wrapping his arm around her.

Biting her lip, Elena turned toward him. "I don't care about the location as long as it is with you," she said with a playful smile, slowly leaning in for a kiss, but a glimpse of hard melancholy in Damon's eyes stopped her. "What is it, Damon?" She asked softly, touching his cheek with her fingertips.

He reached out to sift her hair through his fingers before tucking a few strands behind her ear. "Elena, if this is a purgatory, people go somewhere from here and there is no way we'll be going to the same place, you know that, right?"

Elena's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "What are you talking about?" She asked with a grimace, cupping his face in her hands, her eyes wandering all over his face.

"I'm talking about you going to what popularly goes by the name _heaven_ and me going to..." Damon waved his hand, "whatever place Bonnie saw Katherine being dragged to," he said in a wry, melodic voice, narrowing his eyes at Elena in a small, warm smile when she gave him a purposefully irritated look.

"You're not going to any hell, Damon," Elena said with an incredulous grimace. "That's ridiculous."

"Is it? I'm pretty sure if there's a threshold for murder it probably doesn't exceed ten people a person is allowed to kill to still qualify for heaven."

"It doesn't work that way," Elena said with a huff. "What about _why_ your past was the way it was? And what about all the people you have saved? That's what counts."

Damon leaned into her touch, a weak smile flickering across his face. "That's what counts for you," he said in a low, morose voice that made Elena's heart clench.

She shook her head. "First of all, we are not dead yet, so we'll have more time to prove who we are, who we want to be. Damon, I know you," she said earnestly, pressing a soft kiss to his lips before drawing back and glancing around them. "And whoever created this place is at least as smart as me and knows you too. Everything you've done wrong was done out of despair. You feel guilt and remorse and you've changed."

"This doesn't make any of it OK, Elena. There are things that can't be undone."

"I'd like to say that I've done horrible things too, but I don't want you to break up with me again," Elena said, hoping to lighten the mood, even if the callback was rather fatal. To her chagrin, however, Damon's smile was still sad. She sighed in frustration. "Fine." She thrust up her chin. "Let's say you're right. Then wherever you'll go, I'm going there with you."

"You're going to go to hell with me?" Damon said, his eyes brightening in wonder when Elena gazed into his eyes without any humor in her face, just genuine seriousness.

"Yes. I hope we'll follow each other back into the light, like we always do, but if I had to follow you into the dark to be with you, I would."

She kissed him, gently holding his face in her hands when he kissed her back, a kiss that felt more like he was clinging to her lips, savoring her closeness rather than kissing her.

"Years and few good deeds later, I still don't deserve you," Damon said in a low voice, grazing Elena's cheek with his hand and brushing his thumb over her lips when she tried to speak. "And just to be clear, there's no way in hell I'd let you do that," Damon whispered against her lips and kissed her again before she had a chance to voice her indignation.

They broke the kiss at the sound of footsteps.

"I wonder if you'll be able to tell the exact flavor and all the ingredients," Desmond said, placing a tray with three coffee cups on the table.

"Probably not, because we're not going to drink it," Damon replied, squinting.

"Damon," Elena widened her eyes at him, stifling a smile.

"Why not?" Desmond sat down at the table across from them and proceeded to handing out the cups. "If I wanted to poison you, I wouldn't have spent ten minutes steaming the milk just right," he winked.

"It's a delightful family recipe, I'm sure, but we're still going to politely decline," Damon said, grabbing Elena's hand when she reached out for a spoon.

"No family recipes, I'm afraid," Desmond said with a wistful smile and Elena looked at him more carefully. "I was raised in an orphanage. But I always believed I'd have my own family one day. I felt like I'd know exactly how to make a warm, happy home." He smiled, a little embarrassed as if he'd said more than he'd wanted to. He looked up and Elena returned his smile, feeling a twinge of sadness at the pain that flashed in his eyes. "But that didn't work out either."

"I'm sorry," Elena said quietly. "My adoptive parents died in a car accident when I was in high school and my biological parents... also died, soon after," she said in an instinctive effort to comfort him by showing him that he wasn't alone in harboring painful memories.

Desmond grimaced sympathetically, saying that he was very sorry about her loss.

Then they both fell silent and looked at their hands. Damon's eyes darted between them.

"My father was beating me and I thought my mother died of consumption, but it turned out she was trekking the world, killing people. This is not a decaf, is it?" he said flatly in one breath and then leaned over the cup to inhale the scent.

Elena covered his hand with hers and squeezed it, regarding him for a moment with such acute, tender understanding that it made Desmond smile just out of gladness that there was love like this in the world.

"No, it's not a decaf," he replied with a small smile. "So... where are you from?" He asked, hoping to change the mood and get to know them better.

He never got to spend much time with newcomers before they were moving on, but he always enjoyed pleasant conversations and hearing about people's lives, their joys and experiences that shaped them while they were alive. He always wondered if there was perhaps that one story he was yet to hear, because he couldn't think of a different explanation as to why he himself hadn't moved on yet. Why, even though it had been more than a dozen of decades since his own death, he was still here, in this exquisite waiting room.

"We're from Mystic Falls. It's a small town in Virginia," Elena said, shooting Damon an amused look when he held her wrist down, so she couldn't raise the coffee cup to her lips.

"Mystic Falls," Desmond echoed in such a strange voice that they both looked at him.

"Have you been there?" Elena asked with an uncertain smile, not sure if the name evoked good or bad memories, because the expression on Desmond's face was difficult to interpret.

"No," he said under his breath with a weak smile. "I just knew someone from there, a long time ago."

xxxdelenaxxx

"You didn't have to volunteer to go with me, you know," Caroline said, walking next to Klaus in a rather awkward manner, inwardly scolding herself for getting so distracted she forgot to change into comfortable shoes.

Klaus gave her a surprised look. "But it was you who volunteered to go with me," he said, adjusting the shovel flung over his shoulder and Caroline wasn't sure if she found his jaunty step amusing or creepy considering that they were out to dig out a corpse.

"No, I volunteered to go by myself," Caroline insisted, stepping on a slippery stone she couldn't see in the near darkness surrounding them and losing her balance which forced her to grab Klaus' hand.

He smirked and then instead of helping her to regain her footing, he dropped the shovel, pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

"Stop kissing me on every occasion!..." Caroline whispered hoarsely, smacking him on the shoulder in sincere irritation that was, however, very difficult to maintain while he was trailing kisses along her neck. "And ignoring what I'm saying!..."

Klaus lifted his head to look at her. "I'm not ignoring what you're saying, Caroline," he said seriously. "It's just that I know you don't mean it."

"How do you know?" Caroline asked sharply, sincerely puzzled.

Klaus narrowed his eyes at her, amused by her tone. "Because you're here, with me. Because you look me in the eye." He glanced at her hand on his shoulder. "Because you hold on to me." He inched his mouth closer to her. "Because you can't catch your breath," he whispered, gazing into her eyes.

"It still doesn't mean-" Caroline trailed off, not sure what she wanted to say and if what she wanted to say was what she was really thinking. She frowned.

"I know I wasn't here when... you were grieving," Klaus suddenly said in a low, serious voice. "But-"

"I'd say that an excuse that includes Mikael and Esther returning from the dead and an evil aunt trying to kidnap your daughter is a valid excuse," Caroline interrupted him quietly.

Klaus gave her a small smile."I always wanted you to feel that no matter what, no matter when, you could always call for me and I'd come."

"I do feel that," Caroline replied automatically, smiling without realizing it.

But then her smile turned into a startled frown."Did you hear that?" She asked, her eyes darting right and left.

Klaus didn't reply, but also looked around and then started walking into the opposite direction than the one in which they were headed.

Caroline followed him, about to point out that according to Stefan, Damon and Alaric didn't bury Kai in the cemetery, but before she could say that, she was stopped dead in her tracks by the alarmingly eerie sight.

"Oh my God," she gasped, surveying the graveyard with wide eyes.

All the graves seemed to have been blasted open and pieces of coffins, shattered glass and broken tombstones were scattered everywhere.

Klaus sighed. "Looks like your town population might've just increased by a little bit."


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: I was hoping for a quiet last week at work, but instead overtime happened, so I had even less time to write than usual, which resulted in the necessity to shorten this chapter. We're still on track, plot-wise, but instead of having a full picture of what's going on, so to speak, we'll focus on Damon & Elena's side of things and leave the back story of the upcoming cliffhanger (just bear with me lol) for after the mini-hiatus.

On a happier note, I couldn't just go on vacation without telling you who Desmond was, could I? ;) And three of you attempted to guess who he was and... one of you was right! :D

Thank you so much for all the follows, favorites and especially for all the awesome reviews! :]

Also, please remember that scarlett2112 is busy updating three (!) of her wonderful stories every single week, so check them out if you haven't already :)

Last but not least (can you tell that this is a mid-season finale kind of a/n since it's _so_ long? haha) Happy Autumn! I'll see you again at the very end of September :)

 **Chapter 13**

There had to be a way out of here, Damon thought, looking around as much as it was possible without interrupting Elena gushing over the fact that Desmond had known Charles Dickens. It was quite interesting, he'd give him that, especially in the context of being raised in a South Carolina orphanage in the 1820s, yet ending up entering the Navy, but Damon still didn't think becoming fast friends was a good idea. Not to mention that the man could be lying. One could never be too careful when it came to strange encounters on the Other Side, in prison worlds and such.

He frowned, thinking about Kai and hoping that Enzo managed to keep him unconscious until he was able to get some help. Damon sighed. He was still holding a grudge against Enzo for turning Bonnie, but... saving Elena kind of got him a free pass for, well, all eternity, and he just hoped Bonnie would understand that.

Brushing Elena's hair off her face when a gust of wind blew a few strands into her eyes, Damon gave her a small smile when she glanced at him. She seemed completely oblivious to the need of any precautions and was eagerly listening to all the stories she was prompting Desmond to tell and apart from finding it a bad idea for all practical purposes, Damon also couldn't help feeling endlessly glad that despite everything that had happened to her, she was still able to be so radiantly open and trustful.

Desmond, in turn, was proving to be quite a storyteller, except for one story that he seemed determined to keep to himself. There appeared to be a year missing from his story. The reason why he'd left America and traveled to Europe wasn't clear, but the memory was clearly painful. He wasn't going to talk about it and Elena was the last person to pry, so the mystery was probably going to remain unsolved.

"You've met Queen Victoria?" Elena propped her head on her elbows, beaming with curiosity.

"I didn't know you were such a royalist," Damon quipped.

Elena narrowed her eyes at him, stifling a smile.

Desmond chuckled briefly under his breath. "You are a very gracious listener indeed, Elena," he said with a sincerely appreciative smile. "You remind me of someone," he added wistfully.

"She can't beat me, I assure you," Damon cut in, before Elena had a chance to react to Desmond's words. Even if Desmond wasn't evil he was still going to make it onto the blacklist very quickly if he'd continue staring at Elena like that. "All these boring things I had to listen to _for hours_ when I was pretending I just wanted us to be friends."

Elena snorted. "Like I ever believed it."

"You did believe that," Damon insisted, but Elena kept shaking her head. He glanced at Desmond and was glad to notice that the wistful look was gone and he was just listening to them in mild amusement. Perhaps Elena really simply reminded him of someone, as unlikely as it was since there was no one in the world like her. "You even said that a few times."

"Saying something and believing it are two different things," Elena said with a hint of nonchalance in her voice and Damon's slightly confused frown turned into a smirk.

"So how have you met?" Desmond asked, realizing he'd been talking for at least an hour without giving them a chance to speak.

Elena smiled. "He ambushed me in the middle of the night on an empty road and told me he knew _exactly_ what I wanted."

"It doesn't sound very romantic when you say it like that," Damon said, wincing a little.

Elena chuckled. "He said I wanted passion, adventure and danger and it _was_ romantic," she said reassuringly, grabbing Damon's hand and intertwining her fingers with his. "Except that he made me forget all about it," she added in a low, strained, humorous voice.

"Really? You want to talk about forgetting things?" Damon interjected, lightly squeezing Elena's hand to indicate that it was time to stop divulging to strangers, but Elena didn't seem to take the hint and to Damon's bemusement explained to Desmond how compulsion worked and what Damon's remark meant, which of course required a bit of an insight into vampirism and Damon was rather impressed how politely Desmond tried to keep up without appearing completely taken aback by what he was hearing.

"So you... already died?" Desmond decided to ask after a longer pause, carefully, apparently having troubles putting together a timeline.

"Yes, but what matters is that we're not _dead_ dead right now," Damon cut Elena off, thinking it was important to make a point of reiterating that.

"Yes, I got that the twenty-seventh time you said it, Damon," Desmond retorted in a serious voice, but with a glimpse of humor in his eyes and Elena smiled, looking between them.

Damon narrowed his eyes at Desmond to cover up his own smile that Elena noticed anyway.

"We died, but later we came back to life... undead life," Elena amended to further clarify the matter, but it didn't seem to work and she stopped herself before mentioning Damon's side trip to 1994 or the cure and complicating what was supposed to be an explanation even more. "No vampires have ever passed through here?" She asked instead, struck by the thought and Damon glanced at Desmond thinking that it was a very good question indeed.

Which, however, didn't seem to throw Desmond off balance and it was becoming increasingly difficult to suspect him of any vile designs.

"Well, I don't usually spend much time talking to anyone here. By the time people start believing they really are dead, they move on."

"Something tells me you didn't have to kill anyone for this job," Damon observed wryly. "It's like being stuck in a foyer for all eternity."

Desmond chuckled briefly under his breath. "No one's given it to me, it kind of happened all by itself when I found out that... I couldn't move on."

Elena frowned. "Why?"

Desmond shrugged. "I wish I knew. There are two roads that lead away from here and I tried both. Granted, it probably wasn't wise, trying that second one." He laughed a little. "But all in all, it turned out not to matter, because I couldn't step through either door."

"So it's a road or a door?" Damon inquired with a mockingly suspicious look.

Elena poked him.

Desmond shifted his eyes between them, a smile not leaving his eyes. "The roads are behind the doors."

Damon sighed. "No offense, but I'm still hoping this is all..." he waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, "a hallucination."

"Caused by what?" Elena asked, arching an eyebrow at him. "Too much kissing?"

"I was going to blamethe sun and sundaes five times a day, but now that you mentioned it, I wouldn't be ruling out the possibility," Damon said with a flicker of a roguish smile passing through his face. "Oh and," he continued before Elena managed to cut in, "maybe the reason why you can't move on is that you aren't dead either?" He said, shifting his eyes to Desmond. "Has it ever crossed your mind? And you're welcome for the tip, by the way, if it turns out to be true."

Desmond shook his head. "No, I'm pretty sure I am dead. I remember how I died."

Elena suddenly straightened up and reached into her pocket. "I thought I didn't have it with me when..." She smiled again, marveling at the discovery of her phone for a few seconds, but then brushing it off.

"Yeah, let's call someone," Damon said with mock enthusiasm. "Let's call Jeremy. You'll make rustling noises and I'll howl."

Elena gave him a look and proceeded to browsing through the photos and then placing the phone on the table for Desmond to see.

"Some of these are not best quality. They are pictures I took of actual photographs, because..." she paused and sighed, "someone deleted all the pictures from my phone once."

"And that person went straight to hell. Literally. Which should give you an idea of whether it's a good idea to mess with Elena's phone," Damon said, watching Elena with a smile that turned into a frown when he realized what she was doing.

"That's us when we went skiing," she started describing the pictures in her phone to Desmond.

"Perks of extreme skiing," Desmond pointed out to Elena's amusement.

"Exactly." She laughed.

"Really?" Damon tapped his fingers on the table, glaring at the selfie of his face covered with snow and Elena pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"And this is us in Atlanta. It's one of our favorite places to go."

"Did you take a picture of that mailbox you smashed on our way back the last time we were there?" Damon asked, trying to interrupt the slide show, but Elena kept the phone secured between her hands, not letting him grab it.

"I only smashed it because you started undressing me while I was driving."

"I did no such thing," Damon objected with theatrical certainty. "I just tried to brush a leaf that flew through the window and landed in your hair." He did a short demonstration by picking an imaginary leaf off Elena's hair.

"Right," Elena muttered, biting back a smile. "And that's why you tore off my blouse. Now could we please go back to a more appropriate conversation?"

"Nah, you already told Desmond so many compromising things about us that we'll have to kill him before leaving anyway," Damon said with a mockingly regretful sigh.

"Like I said, I'm already dead, but thank you for the warning," Desmond replied immediately.

Elena gave him a bright smile and dragged her finger across the screen to move onto the next picture.

"This is us on a ball. I was dressed as Anne Boleyn and Damon was Henry the Eighth."

Damon propped his head on his elbow, giving up on trying to interrupt Elena. "Shockingly, things only went downfall from there."

Elena's eyes flickered to him for a second, a bittersweet smile flitting across her lips.

"Oh, and this-" She stopped in mid-sentence, laughing a little when Damon groaned out loud. "This is Damon when he was a toddler," she said, brushing baby Damon's hair with the tip of her finger. "I brought this picture back from a prison world... it's a long story," she said, glancing up at Desmond to see if he was ready for another strange tale, but to her puzzlement Desmond was staring at the picture with wide eyes, his face pale.

Elena glanced at Damon who also noticed Desmond's strange expression, but when they tried to ask him what was wrong, for a few seconds it seemed like he couldn't formulate a sentence.

"What year is this picture from?" He finally asked in a hoarse voice, hardly able to catch his breath, reaching out to take the phone in his hands and Elena drew back her hands to let him do that, something in Desmond's face making her heart clench.

"1844?" Elena offered, looking to Damon for confirmation.

"More or less," Damon murmured, perplexed by how moved by the picture Desmond looked.

Slowly, he lifted his head, tearing his eyes away from the picture with great difficulty. "That's not possible," he whispered, shaking his head over and over again as if he was simultaneously hoping that they were right and wrong. "Lilian died in 1839."

Elena's eyelids fluttered and she drew a sharp intake of breath.

"You knew my mother?" Damon asked more sharply than he'd intended, not really sure why he suddenly felt more upset than intrigued.

"Why do you think she died in 1839?" Elena asked softly, placing one hand over Damon's to calm him, her eyes fixed on Desmond whose eyes were cast to the picture again.

"Her parents told me," Desmond replied in a hollow tone. "But she didn't die, she didn't die, did she?" He asked feverishly, his voice laced with so much hope and so much dread that Elena didn't know what to reply.

"No, she didn't," Damon replied tonelessly, watching Desmond with wary eyes, the look Elena could so easily recognize, that look when he was trying to pretend he didn't care, whatever was going to happen, whatever he was going to hear, he didn't care.

Desmond froze. He was staring at the picture for another while before he looked up, hope and disbelief shining in his eyes.

Damon was looking back at him, his expression stern and unreadable. Desmond opened his mouth to speak, but then the earth started shaking underneath them, an earthquake seemingly ripping through both the ground and the sky above them.

"What's going on?" Elena asked, falling into Damon's arms when he caught her before she slid to the ground.

"It's never happened before," Desmond said, reaching out for Elena's phone, but the wind brushed it off the table and sent it tumbling down into the river.

"We have the original one at home," Elena said reassuringly, catching Desmond's gaze.

He gave her a weak smile, before shifting his eyes to Damon who was looking around, drawing their attention into one particular direction from which strange, wavy rays of light were coming.

Elena held onto Damon when they suddenly felt the rays flying to them, pulling them toward them with some strange, magnetic force.

"Do you think someone is trying to pull us out of here?" Elena asked, shouting to make her voice audible through the noise of the air swirling around them so fast it was almost obscuring their vision.

The warmth emanating from the rays seemed to be answer enough and they exchanged uncertain smiles guessing that the same feeling had just rushed through them.

"Come back with us!" Elena exclaimed on an impulse turning to Desmond as she and Damon were beginning to be pulled away.

Desmond's eyes rapidly darted between them but then he caught himself. "I can't. I'm dead. It's too late."

Elena felt Damon's embrace tighten around her and even without looking at him she could feel his expression change, a genuinely heartbroken look on Desmond's face breaking on through to him, somehow and she smiled, feeling tears well up in her eyes when a moment before they were all swept off her feet Damon, to Desmond's wonderment, seized his arm.

"Death's always only a new beginning."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Elena..."

Waking up to Damon's voice was always pleasant and with a small smile already brightening her face, Elena opened her eyes.

But the look on Damon's face made her smile vanish.

Elena quickly looked around and sighed with relief at the sight of Desmond who looked bewildered, but perfectly alive... alive-ish... alive enough.

But then she followed Damon's gaze and all color drained off her face.

They were sitting on the ground in the middle of a dark cemetery, right in front of a tombstone with their names engraved on it.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: I promised to be back at the end of September and... here I am in mid-October. I'm sorry about the delay, but I have to tell you, it's actually quite an achievement I'm here at all! lol RL and all that. Anyway. It's good to be back :] I missed you all! *hugs*

Chapters may be a bit shorter from now on (because I have very little time to write right now), but of course it doesn't mean that the story gets shortened, so this year prepare yourselves for more than 22 chapters ;)

On a side note, I'm not watching S7, but... have you seen the title for episode 7x04? I didn't have anything to do with that, just so you know lol

 **Chapter 14**

The sight of tombstones with their names on them made Elena hold her breath but only until Damon leisurely clapped his hands and said in a theatrically loud voice:

"How clever to make the dates illegible. Unfortunately, there's no way Caroline would allow for our graves to be so unfashionable, so the jig's up, sorry."

Desmond continued scanning their surroundings with wary eyes while Elena gave Damon a questioning look. But before Damon had a chance to explain his interpretation of the unsettling sight in front of them, Kai walked into the scene.

Elena abruptly straightened up, but Damon grabbed her hand in a reassuring gesture and slowly, she drew a breath and gave him a small smile.

It was so easy, getting caught up in a storm, but she was beginning to learn how to be able to pause it, just for a millisecond, to remember about not being alone or about being strong enough or about hope... About everything that made it possible to weather any storm.

"I had such a fun little scenario in mind. Why did you have to go and ruin it?" Kai asked with a grimace, his voice laced with sarcasm, but also with genuine irritation.

"When we were trapped 1994, at first Bonnie thought we might've landed in a projection world," Damon said, leaning toward Elena and glancing at Desmond who was close enough to them to hear him. "A projection world is a fake reality that someone with magical powers can make you see."

"So the way out of that... other world," she glanced at Desmond, "was fake?" Elena asked in a low voice, her forehead wrinkling in worry.

"Hello, I'm still here," Kai called out to them, waving his hand high in the air.

"Who are you?" Desmond asked sharply, Elena's initial reaction to the intruder a rather reliable indication that he wasn't a welcomed apparition.

Damon groaned under his breath. "No, please, don't ask him that. He'll talk incessantly for five hours."

Kai grinned. "Says someone who spent five years having conversations with a comatose chick."

"When we're back, I'll try to think of something more _poignant_ than just cutting his head off," Damon retorted, retaining a very artificial, thin smile.

Elena squeezed his hand just in case he'd try to act on his words right away, despite the fact that Kai was probably not material enough here to get hurt.

"Yes, _that_ I didn't forget," Kai said, waggling his finger at them in a disapproving gesture. "As for going back, who said you will go back at all?"

"That light we've felt couldn't have led here," Desmond interjected, glancing around the cemetery which now that Elena took a better look at it did look like a run-down movie set, not real at all.

"Nice catch. By the way, who are you?" Kai asked, looking Desmond up and down.

"He asked you first and you didn't answer, so the Q&A part is null and void. As for getting back, you must've just got into whatever spell was enacted to bring us back, so sooner or later this," Damon looked around," is going to wear off and we're going to wake up."

"So we're back already?" Elena asked with a cautious smile.

Briefly, Damon touched her forehead with his. "Yup. Probably asleep. For a change," he muttered and they exchanged another smile.

"Why are you asking him these questions?" Kai said, tilting his head to the side. "This is my world."

Elena gave him the most indifferent, austere look she could muster.

"I guess if this place is going to eventually disappear anyway, we may as well ignore you," Desmond promptly manifested sharing Damon and Elena's attitude and walked around the tombstones to sit opposite from them.

Kai crunched up his face. "You were all away, so I'll fill you in on what happened in your absence. You don't know that I absorbed the spell that was meant too-"

"Yeah, yeah, figured that one out already," Damon cut him off, slumping down onto the ground and leaning against his tombstone.

Elena followed suit, shooting Kai a look. Damon draped his arm over Elena.

Kai laughed under his breath, a glint of annoyance flashing in his eyes. "You're not going to just sit here in silence, are you?"

"I don't know about silence," Damon said, narrowing his eyes at Desmond. "Can you sing?"

Elena stifled a smile while Desmond smiled faintly in response, trying to retain eye-contact with Damon, but Damon quickly looked away. "I can't sing," Elena said in a low voice.

"I know that," Damon said flatly, glancing at her and smiling when she poked him. "We can't cook, can't sing. These poor kids." He sighed and then looked at Elena feeling her gaze at him.

He'd spoken on an impulse and it was just a perfunctory joke, but when their eyes locked, it triggered a flash flood of images and for a few seconds they were somewhere faraway, years away, dreaming.

"And I'm _still_ here," Kai announced in a mocking sing-song voice, walking up to them and slumping onto the ground nearby. "Let's talk about something fun. Guess what's happening in your town right now?" He said with a complacent smirk waiting for their reaction that didn't make its way to their faces, but he was sure his words gave them something to think about.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Is she going to be OK?" Sarah asked, peering over Jeremy's shoulder and into the library where Bonnie was chanting something in abandon while looking at Damon, Elena and a stranger that somehow showed up along with others.

Others... Were they ghosts? Sarah wasn't sure what they were, but out of all the people who had appeared in Mystic Falls following Caroline and Klaus finding the graveyard empty, that man no one could recognize was the only one who wasn't awake. Apart from Damon and Elena, of course. The three of them were still asleep despite all the magical efforts to wake them up.

There had been two ways to bring Damon and Elena back and Bonnie chose the one that would ensure to bring them back as humans. But that required for all the energy she was using and channeling during the spell to accumulate inside her and if it turned out that she wasn't strong enough to hold it, the price could be her life.

The other option would've been to send all the magical energy into Damon and Elena, but that would've resulted in both of them returning as witchpires, since the energy belonged to the spell brewed by witchpires in the first place. Not to mention that Damon and Elena weren't witches, so the energy might've been too strong for them to bear it, so all in all Bonnie had decided risking her own life was a "safer idea." Jeremy had not smiled at the joke.

"I'll go check up on Enzo," Sarah said after waiting for a longer while for Jeremy to answer her, which he didn't, although an anxious expression on his face was probably answer enough.

Jeremy's head snapped into Sarah's direction only after she'd walked away, as if only then her words registered in his mind, but he didn't stop her from going, unable to pull himself away from the door as if watching Bonnie was somehow a reliable way to keep her safe.

Sarah quickly walked past a room where Caroline and Stefan were trying to keep newly arrived guests from freaking out. It seemed as if all the revived Mystic Falls residents were somehow compelled to come to the boarding house.

Or perhaps it was just Sarah's impression and it was her who was a stranger, not people returning from the dead. She sighed. Among the unexpected guests were Elena's and Jeremy's parents and their aunt, but with Bonnie being immersed in the spell and possibly in great danger, after blinking back the tears and hugging his mother and his aunt and sparing a glance at his father, Jeremy scurried back to keeping an eye at Bonnie.

Walking down the stairs leading into the cellar, Sarah kept wondering why it didn't bother her all that much. Was it because she simply understood Jeremy's concern? Or maybe because Bonnie seemed like a really nice person and Sarah was worried about her too? Or perhaps there was something more, something else going on in her head that she couldn't or didn't really want to grasp?

"Came to visit the lone guard? How nice," Enzo mused, glancing at Sarah while keeping his arms propped against the door, his eyes fixed on Kai or at least his body that Klaus and Caroline had managed to recover during their nightly escapade.

In all honesty, Enzo didn't mind being designated to watch the enemy, away from all the family drama happening upstairs. It seemed like a less demanding task anyway. At least, of course, until Kai would wake up and attempt to plow through the town killing everyone in his path.

"Are you sure your magic can hold him in there if his spirit returns to his body?" Sarah asked grimly. "If he really absorbed all that power-"

"Do I look like I don't know what I'm doing?" Enzo interrupted her with a crooked smirk, widening his eyes at her.

Sarah folded her arms across her chest. "Frankly? Yes," she said, taking a few swift steps toward him and glancing inside the cell herself, more or less accidentally almost brushing against Enzo's face while doing so. "It seems to me you usually don't know what you're doing."

Enzo watched her, ostentatiously not moving even an inch away to allow her more room near the door. "I have to say, I didn't think you'd end up a vampire hunter of all things," he murmured, narrowing his eyes at her.

Sarah took a step back to look at him. "We only hunt those who deserve it."

Enzo smiled, that guarded, artificial smile that she always found a little scary and oddly intriguing.

"Didn't know there was an easy way to determine that. Enlighten me." Sarah opened her mouth to speak, but Enzo continued. "How is killing your parents in blind vampire fury worse than killing people in cold blood just because they don't strike you as lawful citizens?"

Sarah's reaction wasn't what he'd expected, because instead of glaring at him or storming off she leaned against the wall, mirroring his nonchalant stance and narrowing her eyes at him in a faint smile.

"One of these days I'll need to figure out why you're all defending him so hard. Didn't he leave you to die in flames or something?" She asked casually, holding Enzo's gaze when his smirk returned.

"Someone's been studying history. Has photography got boring? Because I saw that coming."

"Jeremy told me you tried to choke him," Sarah said levelly. Enzo rolled his eyes. "Why?"

"To be honest, I don't even remember exactly."

"You don't remember why you tried to choke someone?" Sarah repeated skeptically, arching an eyebrow.

"Well, what can I say. I've always been like that. I don't hold grudges for too long."

Sarah was about to retort, but then her eyes darted to Stefan who appeared on the stairs.

"You don't say," Stefan said flatly, glancing at Enzo, before shifting his gaze to Sarah. "You might want to come downstairs," he said before Enzo had a chance to cut in.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Do you ever think about it?" Kai continued prodding, despite being ignored by everyone. "Like, isn't it weird that your girlfriend and your brother were dating?"

Elena gritted her teeth, keeping her eyes fixed on an indefinable point in space. After listening to Kai recounting in great detail killing Jo it didn't feel right to get offended by him talking about anything else, as insufferable as it was.

Damon continued tapping his fingertips against the back of Elena's hand and Elena had to hand it to Desmond that no muscle in his face twitched and there was no glint of curiosity in his eyes, as if Kai had just brought up the most indifferent of topics.

"And what about you?" Kai sat cross-legged on the ground, narrowing his eyes at Elena. "Do you ever make comparisons in your head?" He chortled. "For example when-"

Desmond's head snapped up and Damon and Elena followed his gaze noticing that their surroundings flickered and then began to fade.

"Oh, at last," Kai said, leaning back on his elbows and smirking at them when they looked at him with shadows of involuntary confusion passing through their faces. "We're going home," he clarified with a smirk. "I was just trying to scare you that you wouldn't go home. The actual twist is that we're all going home together." He stifled a laugh and then said in an amused whisper. "Yay."

xxxdelenaxxx

The first thing Sarah noticed was Caroline sitting on the couch in tears. For some reason it was the sight that automatically caught her attention and it took her a few moments to realize that Caroline was crying from happiness, because she was cradling someone in her arms and laughing through her tears.

Only then Sarah finally heard Stefan's voice when he touched her arm and her eyes drifted, slowly, so slowly she felt as if every moment lasted an hour, toward the other side of the room where two people were standing with their eyes focused on her in a way that felt very familiar and entirely unknown.

"That's-" Stefan started in a low voice.

"I know," Sarah whispered, faces she recognized from pictures blurring in front of her more and more the closer they were getting to her.

There was no point in preparing for such a meeting, so it had never crossed her mind to even think about it. It was impossible. It had been impossible. Even in this strange, supernatural world she'd entered, it still seemed like the most unlikely of miracles.

If she'd had a chance to think about it before, she'd have probably thought of some words, had imagined feelings, feared awkwardness. But she hadn't got a chance to think about it before, so this moment now caught her off guard, unprepared.

There were warm arms around her, scent of perfume that _sounded_ like a music box with tiny silver and gold horses. She had no memories she could see, just a heartbeat reverberating in her ears, a melody-less sound of home.

With Zach and Gail's tears-streaked faces pressed to her cheeks, Sarah returned their embrace, bursting into tears when she tried to smile.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Bonnie!"

Jeremy ran into the room when the windows were suddenly blown open and gusts of wind began to wreck havoc in the library, hurtling the books to the ground. He felt his heart clench at the sight of blood dripping from Bonnie's nose. He couldn't stand that sight. He couldn't stand it the most. A flashback after flashback, it brought so many awful, painful memories. Why was it always like that, why she'd always throw herself into every danger and why it always had to end in some terrible way?

"What's happening?"

Jeremy's eyes darted to Miranda who appeared in the doorway, scanning the room with frightened eyes.

"Don't go in here, mom!" He shouted above the noise, kneeling next to Bonnie, but afraid to touch her to interrupt her trance. She'd be mad if he did and a part of him didn't want to care, but another part of him... was used to it. It wasn't his place to tell her what to do and what her limits were. She never listened anyway.

Miranda was about to protest, but then her eyes widened at the sight of Elena and without asking for a permission, she hurried into the room and fell to the floor next to her.

"No, mom, don't-"

Jeremy tried to stop her, but Miranda already reached out for Elena's hand and when she touched her Bonnie screamed and the wind intensified, tossing everyone against the walls of the room.

"Go to hell," Bonnie muttered and Jeremy crawled through the chaos back to her, reading from her face that it wasn't just the spell wearing her off.

On an impulse and against his own advice, Jeremy grabbed Bonnie's hand, but before he realized what he was doing or before he could withdraw his hand Bonnie opened her eyes and looked at him, her gaze astoundingly clear, emanating with such absolute strength that it rendered Jeremy speechless.

"Kai's in there with them," Bonnie said, glancing at Damon, Elena and the stranger on the floor.

Jeremy noticed Grayson walk into the library and rush to Miranda to help her to her feet, but Jeremy's attention quickly returned to Bonnie.

Her eyes were shining brighter than he'd ever seen them, her hands rolled up into fists and he realized that she was talking to him in the middle of enacting the spell, somehow able to concentrate on both tasks.

"These past few years I've hardly been doing anything else but practicing magic," she said, seemingly reading his mind, a faint smile flickering across her face.

Jeremy smiled nervously, squeezing her hand tighter in his. "Then we have to bring back all of them," he said unnecessarily, the decision already visible in Bonnie's eyes.

"Growing up was supposed to be about becoming more responsible," Bonnie replied, still holding onto his hand and it reminded him about their first kiss. He couldn't even remember right now if they had been holding hands then, but there was something about the need of being close, of being together in the moment, through the moment that was the same back then and right now. "But it seems we're all only becoming more mad."

Bonnie's voice blended with the wind and Jeremy didn't as much hear the words as he managed to read them from her lips.

He shook his head. "Not mad."

More people dashed into the room, but Jeremy couldn't see who they were, unable to look away from Bonnie's eyes, trying to remember why he'd ever look away.

"Braver," he said, the word both fitting and not exactly what he'd wanted to say, but somehow Bonnie seemed to understand what he meant.

She smiled, drew a breath and closed her eyes, gusts of wind bolting across the room so fast they seemed to be triggering sparks of light, flashing in the air, setting fire to miniscule grains of dust until the noise broke like an interrupted song and the room drowned in complete silence.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Now that my daughter is done strangling me, could someone tell me what's going on here?" Liz asked with a cautious smile, glancing at Stefan over Caroline's shoulder while cradling her in her arms.

"But how are you feeling, mom?" Caroline insisted, one step away from shaking Liz to get a firm answer out of her.

Somewhere deep inside she knew and feared it all could only be a temporary side effect of a spell, Kai's cruel joke or something else, but she just couldn't stop herself from diving head on into hope that her mother was really back. For good.

Stefan smiled weakly.

"Bonnie brought back Damon and Elena, but Kai's probably back too," Jeremy shouted, peering into the room before disappearing into the corridor to run down the stairs to warn Enzo.

Before anyone had a chance to react to that, Jenna ran into the room with a dismayed expression on her face.

"Klaus is here!" She announced gravely, her voice laced with utter fear, her face pale. "I saw him through the window-" She started to explain, but then fell silent when Caroline jumped to her feet.

"Good. He was supposed to bring Chinese food. Let's hope we'll get to have dinner before the next disaster," she mumbled under her breath while marching out of the room.

Jenna stared after her in complete shock, not moving and for a moment Stefan was really afraid she turned into a statue because she was standing with her hand extended toward the windows, not moving, not even blinking.

"I don't know why, but I have a feeling I'll be the one doing all the explanations," Stefan muttered, glancing at Zach, Gail and Sarah sitting together in the other side of the room, completely oblivious to everything that was happening around them.

Stefan looked at Liz who gave him a small, warm smile.

"They gave us thirty fortune cookies!" Hope hopped into the room, all smiles, accidentally bumping into Jenna and almost dropping all the cookies onto the floor.

"Great. There's a chance everyone will get one," Stefan observed with a sigh, wishing to go to Damon and Elena, but then deciding to stay a few moments with Jenna, because when Klaus walked into the room she looked about ready to faint.

"What is he doing here?" Jenna whispered, her lips barely moving as she spoke.

Klaus looked at her, pretty much beaming and Stefan wondered if he even remembered her.

"Are Damon and Elena back?" Hope asked, looking up at Stefan while adjusting the bag in her arms to make sure fortune cookies wouldn't fall out.

"Actually-" Stefan started, but not for the first time he got interrupted by new guests storming into the room.

"What is this?" John asked, glaring at everyone as if everyone but him was responsible for whatever he thought was going on.

"Come on, John," Isobel smiled briefly and only then Stefan noticed her. She walked from behind John and slowly stepped into the room glancing around with casual interest. "You sound like you were upset to be alive."

"Alive?" John turned to her. "I don't think that's the case."

"Well, to be honest, we don't know how alive you are," Stefan cut in with a quick smile that no one returned.

"Personally, I'm going to appreciate the illusion, even if that's what it is," Liz said, rising to her feet when she noticed Caroline walk back into the room.

"Guess who is back?" Caroline said in a chipper voice.

"Elena! Damon!" Hope exclaimed happily, for a moment at a loss of what to do with fortune cookies, so she politely asked petrified Jenna to hold them before running to Damon and Elena who looked more than a little dizzy.

But not as dizzy as Desmond, whose bewildered and overwhelmed expression had immediately appeased Bonnie's doubts concerning him. As soon as he'd woken up she'd stopped fearing that he was bad news, although she wasn't quite able to explain why.

"I'll be right back," Bonnie said, wiping the blood off her face and declining everyone's offers to go with her. "I'm quite capable of washing my own face myself, thanks," she muttered with half-hearted annoyance, quickly walking down the corridor.

Elena smiled at Hope, although she was hardly able to focus on anything, completely thrown off balance by what she'd seen as soon as she'd opened her eyes: her parents hovering over her.

She still wasn't entirely certain she hadn't gone back in time or wasn't dreaming about the past, even if Miranda and Grayson seemed as real as it got.

"Elena," Isobel said softly and John abruptly turned around, his attention immediately drawn to Damon and Elena's intertwined hands.

Damon slowly looked around.

"Having second thoughts about being glad to be back?" Stefan said with a small smile that Damon returned and then smiled even more at the sight of Liz, before his eyes widened.

"It's getting crowded in here," Sarah said, to break the silence that fell when she walked closer toward everyone with Gail and Zach by her side.

Elena drew a breath, blinking quickly.

"I saved your Bear!" Hope said, smiling at Elena.

"Could someone explain to us what is going on?" Grayson said with a frown, looking around the room.

"We're working on it," Stefan said without much conviction in his voice.

"It's complicated," Sarah said with a smile, looking between her parents.

"It's been a long, hard day," Stefan added with a sigh.

Caroline straightened up and crossed her arms over her chest. "My mom's back and Damon's just realized he'll have to deal with two sets of in-laws." She smiled at Damon who didn't have to look around to feel four sets of eyes dart to him. "Personally, I think today is an awesome day."


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for all of your amazing reviews! :] Each and every one of them means to me more than you know *hugs*

I'm sorry about another late update *sigh* If it was up to me (and not, well, my life) I'd be updating every day.

I hope you had a wonderful Halloween and/or beautiful All Saints Day :)

 **Chapter 15**

"Towels are here," Stefan said, indicating a small cabinet. He glanced at the stranger who was rather absentmindedly looking around the room, his forehead wrinkled in thought. "The internet is ten dollars a day, breakfast's between six and seven and the check-out time is twelve."

Desmond turned around a little surprised. "The internet?"

Stefan smiled briefly. "I was only kidding."

"I know," Desmond said with a faint smile. "It's just that I was always wondering about the internet. I heard about it, but never saw it."

"Well, it might be hard to see, but..." Stefan started, but then trailed off and took a few steps toward Desmond. "I'm Stefan, by the way, Damon's brother."

Desmond introduced himself as well and they shook hands. Unfortunately, the name alone didn't tell Stefan much. He hoped to be able to make an educated guess why Damon seemed to trust the stranger from the afterlife enough to bring him back and not kill him, yet apparently not enough to exchange even a word with him or explain why they should trust him.

"Thank you for inviting me to stay," Desmond said somewhat distractedly.

"Don't feel too obliged. It's just this kind of day. All dead people are invited." Stefan added with a smile that turned into a frown at the thought that so far they were being curiously fortunate when it came to surprise guests, but the situation could quickly become less pleasant if some other people who had been buried in Mystic Falls decided to make an appearance.

"Is Lillian here?"

"Lillian?" Stefan blinked, caught off guard by the question. "Do you mean my mother?"

"Good choice," Elena said cheerfully, hopping into the room. "It's one of the coziest rooms," she added with a smile.

Perhaps leaving explaining the basics to Jeremy wasn't the nicest thing to do, but she hoped that coming back from the dead was justification enough for her to want to talk to her parents only after they would know, more or less, what had happened during the last decade. She couldn't imagine going so far back in time right now, reliving all the painful moments.

"Yes, it is very nice," Desmond agreed, glancing around while Stefan continued looking at him, puzzled and worried.

What if Desmond was one of his mother's witchpire friends? Then again if he was, and it didn't look like he was being particularly secretive, why would neither Damon nor Elena seem concerned or suspicious about him at all?

Stefan gave Elena a questioning look that she thought had something to do with her glancing over her shoulder and closing the door.

"I'm avoiding my dad... dads," she corrected herself with a grimace and a nervous smile.

"Is Klaus downstairs?" Stefan asked. It looked like Elena liked Desmond and Stefan decided to trust her judgment in regard to him, which probably wasn't the best idea. but they had more unambiguously dangerous threats to deal with at the moment. "Because I'm avoiding him."

"He noticed," Elena said, biting back a smile.

"Did he?" Stefan widened his eyes at her in feigned astonishment. "Good. I hope he doesn't think he's staying over?"

"I don't think so, especially since he's staying-" Elena stopped abruptly in mid-sentence, inwardly praying that Stefan wouldn't ask her to elaborate, but he actually did something worse.

His forehead crinkled, he lifted his head and with his jaw clenched he gave her a look that said that he immediately guessed the meaning behind her words, was totally expecting to hear just that and yet was utterly shocked, hurt and disappointed to hear it.

"I mean-" Elena started, but Stefan was already on his way out of the room.

"I'm going to check on Sarah, Gail and Zach. How is Jenna doing?"

Elena sighed. "She's having a hard time. And Klaus offering to play chess with her isn't helping."

"Speaking of the devil," Klaus cut in, peering into the room with a broad smile. Stefan propped his hands on his hips and looked away. "Where is your lovely hand-carved chess set? I can't find it."

"I smashed it seven years ago," Stefan replied dryly, walking past Klaus and heading down the stairs.

Klaus gave Elena a look to manifest that he was very saddened and confused by Stefan's behavior and then made to follow him, asking about his reasons for smashing the chess set, but receiving no answer.

"I know this must all be very difficult for you," Elena started, turning toward Desmond.

"Today seems to be a difficult day for everyone," Desmond interrupted her gently and then stepped closed toward her, holding her gaze. "Elena... I need to talk to Lillian."

"She isn't here," Elena replied carefully, trying to find the right words. Desmond seemed to pick up on and memorize everything very quickly, yet somehow Damon's words about his mother trekking the world and killing people must've slipped his mind. "We're not exactly on friendly terms right now, but we're working on it," she added reassuringly. "But I don't think it's a good idea, at least not right now-"

"I need to talk to her," Desmond repeated, his voice still low, but determination in his eyes burning so bright in a very familiar way that made Elena smile weakly in resignation.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I think we should talk to Elena," John stated in an authoritative voice, looking between Isobel, Miranda and Grayson who all seemed inexplicably calmer than him.

"I'm sure we'll have our chance," Isobel said slowly, leaning back on the couch with a drink in her hand. "It's rather crowded in here, in case you haven't noticed. And you don't look like you require immediate attention."

"It's not about me. It's about her. She's- she's _engaged_ ," he said in a slightly strained voice.

"Yes, I thought you might not be familiar with that word," Isobel retorted, not looking at him.

John's eyes darted to her.

"Elizabeth said they're very happy," Miranda cut in, glancing at Grayson who seemed lost in thought and she wasn't sure she knew the exact reason why, although she suspected it might have something to do with a strangely distant, even cold way Jeremy was looking at him ever since they came back.

"And what does she know?" John snorted wryly. "Do you know what kind of person he is"?

Miranda gave him a questioning look.

"Oh, come on, it could've been worse," Isobel observed nonchalantly, sipping her drink. "She could've fallen for a loser like you."

Miranda bit her lip, turning her gaze to the carpet and examining the patterns for a few moments while John gave Isobel a mild glare of exasperation.

"Right. Because a serial killer is so much better."

"You mean in general or are you asking about certain areas of expertise?" Isobel asked matter-of-factly.

John rubbed his eyes stifling another tired snort. "Of course. I'm sorry, I forgot. You'd know."

"Perhaps a more civil behavior wouldn't hurt anyone," Grayson interrupted acidly, shaking himself out of his reverie.

Isobel's eyes flew to him, a glint of anger flashing in her eyes, but before she said anything, Jeremy appeared in the room, immediately cutting into the conversation.

"Does torturing people count as civil behavior?"

Grayson slowly straightened up and just looked at him. Miranda looked between everyone with a confused expression on her face.

"Because torturing people is so much less civil than killing them," Enzo amended, sauntering into the room, glancing at Jeremy before slumping into a chair next to Isobel who narrowed her eyes at him.

"Shouldn't you be downstairs, keeping an eye on Kai?" Jeremy asked with a frown.

"I was, but then I thought I'd rather crash your family reunion. Besides, he's still unconscious _and_ your girlfriends are keeping an eye on him, so I got to go on a break," Enzo explained complacently, ignoring Jeremy's glare, his smirk brightening when his eyes met Isobel's gaze. "Enzo."

Isobel extended her hand toward him in an elegant gesture. "Isobel."

They exchanged smiles.

"I'd like to talk to Elena," John said gruffly, turning to Jeremy.

"Don't take it personally, but I'm not sure you're one of top thirty people she wants to talk to right after coming back from the dead," Jeremy said with a quick smile. "You might need to wait until tomorrow."

"Or you can write her a letter," Isobel said offhandedly, tracing the rim of her glass with her fingertip.

John glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, his jaw clenched.

"After coming back from the dead?" Miranda echoed, rising to her feet, Grayson following her, his eyes fixed on Jeremy, in a questioning, worried look.

"Aren't we all back from the dead?" Enzo said in a theatrically spooky voice before looking at Isobel again and adding in a murmuring voice. "This way or another."

xxxdelenaxxx

"That's _my_ mom. Go hang out with yours. Or at least go do something with your friend who is hitting on every woman in this house, except for Elena," Caroline said, crossing her arms over her chest and giving Damon a sharp look.

"He wasn't hitting on me," Liz protested, stifling a smile.

"I'm afraid two exceptions automatically render your 'every woman' argument invalid," Damon said with a shrug.

Caroline tilted her head to the side and asked in a mockingly sweet voice. "I'm sorry, are you confusing me with someone who thinks you're funny?"

"Yeah, it's the hair. I thought you were Rebekah, but then I remembered she was forced to dump Stefan and you just did it for kicks," Damon said wryly, standing up from the table.

He'd thought he could've enjoyed more than one minute in the company of someone he hadn't killed or upset in some other way in the past, but apparently he was wrong.

"Do _not_ start this conversation," Caroline warned, glaring daggers at him. "Do you think I don't know how happy you are it didn't work out between Stefan and I?"

Damon shook his head in bewilderment. "What?" He asked with a grimace. "Where does that come from?"

Caroline looked away from him, for a moment deliberating whether to answer him at all, but then turned back toward him. "You mean you didn't tell him to reconsider his feelings? I know you did. You must have!"

Liz tried to diplomatically interfere, but both Caroline and Damon were not paying attention to her attempts.

"Even if I did, who cares?"

"He cares! Just because you don't care about what anyone thinks or feels doesn't mean that Stefan doesn't. I'm sure you told him to stay away from me!"

"You're kidding, right?"

"I don't want to talk about it anyway," Caroline said sharply, waving her hands in the air and marching off toward the window and standing with her back to him.

Damon opened his mouth to speak, but Liz silently shook her head signaling that it'd be better for him to leave her and Caroline alone and let them talk.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Do you think he's pretending?" Sarah asked, peering into the cell where Kai was lying motionlessly on the floor, his eyes closed.

It was so strange that he didn't look very threatening at all and yet the stories she'd heard were absolutely horrifying.

"Either that or he may really not be here," Bonnie said thoughtfully. "The fact that his spirit is back doesn't mean anything," she added, shifting her eyes to Sarah. "He didn't need to return to his body if he was strong enough to take over someone else's."

"Again?" Sarah widened her eyes at her.

"Maybe that's why he brought so many people back. Now he can be jumping from one body into another without anyone noticing that he's spying on us, who knows. Or perhaps he's up to something else."

"And you're rather blasé about it," Sarah cautiously pointed out after watching Bonnie for a longer while.

Bonnie smiled a little. "I witnessed so much death and I was dead so many times that I just find it hard to be petrified by anything anymore. Sometimes..." She trailed off, looking away, and Sarah wondered if she'd even continue, but after a longer pause she did, her voice quiet. "Sometimes I feel like death, real death, would be a true blessing. No more pain, no more grief. But then I remember what Grams used to say. That you should always just weave the straw of hopelessness until it becomes hope, because-"

"Because no one but you can spin your fate into gold."

Bonnie's head snapped to the side and her breath caught in her throat at the sight.

Sheila smiled and hugged her granddaughter tight when with a stifled cry Bonnie fell into her open arms.

xxxdelenaxxx

Slowly, Elena closed the door to Desmond's room behind her and walked away still wondering if telling Desmond where Lily lived was a good idea, but then again she didn't feel like she had the right not to tell him, if that made sense.

"How did the extended family reunion go?"

Elena looked up at the sound of Damon's slightly amused voice just in time to meet his gaze before he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

"And how did the conversation with Zach, Gail and Sarah go?" Elena slid her hands over Damon's shoulders and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Damon rested her forehead against Elena's with a stifled groan.

"That's what I thought," Elena said, her slightly lighthearted tone of voice balanced with a serious look in her eyes. "Do you want me to go with you?" She asked softly, leaning into Damon's hand when he cupped her cheek.

"Of course not," Damon protested with a mirthless snort. "Whatever would make you offer to do that? I reconcile with people I killed all the time," he said with a shrug.

"Right," Elena nodded in feigned understanding. "How about reconciling with estranged parents?"

For a moment it looked like Damon wasn't sure what she meant until his mouth twitched, his expression becoming less tense but equally troubled. "You tell me," he said at last with a quick smirk, grabbing Elena's hand at the sound of voices coming from the stairs and quickly maneuvering them inside one of the rooms, soundlessly closing the door behind them with his foot.

"You're changing the subject," Elena protested, nonetheless holding onto him.

"Look! We're in our bedroom!" Damon whispered in the most surprised tone he could muster, glancing over his shoulder before he began trailing warm kisses across Elena's neck.

Her eyes fluttered closed.

" _Now_ I'm changing the subject," Damon murmured into her ear. "Earlier I was merely deflecting."

Elena smiled faintly, hugging him to her while he continued smothering her neck with kisses. She tried to decide if it was perfect timing or really bad timing, but she felt like it had been forever since they were alone and not under any spells or facing imminent danger-

"I forgot to tell you," Elena said excitedly, forcing Damon to reluctantly put his ministrations on hold. He looked up at her. "Everyone who came back is human. I'm human. I think you're human too," she added quietly, looking at him with such joy in her eyes that it made Damon smile in that all-encompassing way in which only she could make him smile.

It always felt like pure happiness, every moment when they'd be looking into each other's eyes, smiling at each other.

"If you want to bite me, Elena, be my guest," Damon said, flashing her a lop-sided grin, slowly running his hand up her arm and into her hair.

Elena widened her eyes at him, amused. "I think there are some more practical ways of checking if you're human."

"But that's a very practical way," Damon argued, leaning in for a soft kiss. "If it heals, I'm a vampire. If it doesn't, it will make my meeting with your parents all the more interesting."

"Believe it or not, this would not work in your favor at all," Elena said with a chuckle, sifting Damon's hair through her fingers.

"Oh, I'm fully prepared to take credit for all the bad things, including your Ds," he said reassuringly, kissing the corner of her mouth.

"Actually, I've never got a D," Elena said, wrinkling her forehead and seemingly ignoring Damon's mouth hovering over hers.

"See? This adds complete credibility to my singular negative impact on your grades once you start getting Ds."

Elena laughed under her breath. "Then I guess I'll just have to study really hard."

"Doesn't matter," Damon stated with theatrical resignation. Elena gave him a questioning look. "You'll be getting Ds because of, but As in spite of being with me."

Elena narrowed her eyes at him in a small smile. "I think you have no reason to be worried about my parents so much. I'm sure my mom will love you once she gets to know you. Isobel, well," Elena drew a breath and muttered in a low voice, "I guess we can safely assume she already rather likes you. My dad's hardly in the position to be judgmental and John in his farewell letter said he'd accept whatever life choices I'd make."

Damon smiled. "I'm no expert, but when parents say 'life choices', I'm quite sure they mean dilemmas such as medical school or law school, not dating or not dating evil vampires."

"Then it's a good thing you're neither evil nor a vampire," Elena said softly, holding his gaze. "Oh, and," she lifted her hand, suddenly remembering. "I didn't tell you, but Kai hurt my hand really badly and I thought I'd never be able to operate, but when we died I noticed it was healed and now it's still healed."

Frowning at the revelation, Damon kept turning Elena's hand in his until she stopped him by intertwining their fingers together.

"Enzo said my hand healed after Hope had touched it," Elena said with a smile, looking at her hand and suddenly drifting off in her thoughts long enough for Damon to prompt her to return.

"Elena?" He cupped her face in his palms.

"I just thought... What if it's only temporary? If we're only temporarily human," she clarified. "With everything that's going on, next week we can end up being turned into witchpires."

"Your point?" Damon asked in a serious voice, but his eyes were smiling and Elena searched his face for a few moments wondering if it was possible he actually guessed that fast what she was trying to say.

"I just thought that- I thought that maybe- I-"

"You."

Elena smacked Damon playfully on the shoulder and he smiled.

"Since we don't know how long it will last, I thought that maybe we could take advantage of being human and-"

"Sunbathe jewelery-free?"

"Damon!"

"Eat vervain sandwiches? I'm just trying to read you mind," Damon said defensively. Elena narrowed her eyes at him. "Damon, this is serious."

"I know it is. Next time I get a speeding ticket I'll have to pay it instead of compelling the police officer to pay it."

Elena looked close to stomping her foot, so Damon rolled his eyes and in one, quick gesture swept Elena off her feet and into his arms.

"Damon, what are you doing?" Elena whispered in surprise when her head landed on the pillows. "There's literally everyone downstairs, Kai's... somewhere, and Desmond asked me-"

"Wait a minute," Damon interrupted her without interrupting himself in unbuttoning his shirt. "What am _I_ doing? It was your idea in the first place."

"What was my idea in the first place?" Elena asked, stupefied, but not enough to stop him from undressing.

Damon gave her a crooked smile, pushing a strand of hair off her face. "To try for a baby."

Elena laughed against Damon's mouth when he leaned down to kiss her.

"I didn't mean it right this minute," she said softly, locking her arms around him and looking into his eyes.

"You said we don't know for how long we'll stay human," Damon said, trying to justify his interpretation, "and that next thing we know we may be turned into witchpires-"

"I said next week and it was kind of an exaggeration. I didn't think you'd be so enthusiastic about the idea," Elena said, biting back a smile, but then her expression became thoughtful. "Especially since it's probably not a good idea."

Damon propped his head on his elbow and looked down at her, running his fingertips across her cheek. "What do you mean?"

"Not until we solve all of this," Elena said, glancing around with a small grimace.

"I'm afraid that if you'd like to make the world a safe place first there may never be the right time," Damon said with a faint smile.

Elena sighed and looked at him, considering his words for a longer while. "You think so?" She asked quietly after a pause.

"I'm certain," Damon said with a wink and she smiled a little.

"But isn't it irresponsible or something?" Elena asked and then squinted when Damon seemed amused by her question. "What's so funny?" Elena demanded.

But instead of answering her, he kissed her and then rolled over onto his back, pulling Elena with him. She landed on top of him, her head under his chin, his arms wrapped tightly around her.

"I promise to keep you safe, Elena. No matter what happens, no matter how long it takes, no matter what the future brings, no matter who we'll be and where and how, I promise to always find a way to save you, to find you, to wake you up, to make you happy."

For a longer while they were just breathing together in silence.

"Is that good enough?" Damon finally asked in a low voice.

Elena shifted in his arms and looked up at him with a bright smile and her eyes glittering in the semi-darkness of the room. "You should save some of these lines for our wedding."

Damon smiled, his eyes not leaving Elena's eyes as her lips were inching closer to his. "I have plenty more of them left to say yet."

xxxdelenaxxx

Sarah looked toward the stairs hoping that Bonnie would come back soon. She was only supposed to walk her grandmother upstairs. Still, guarding Kai's cell alone even for a minute felt strange, even though she wasn't really afraid-

Sarah's breath caught in her throat when after shifting her eyes from the stairs to the cell she realized that it was empty.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: I know. It's been a month. At such a pace this story's going to outlive TVD lol On the (hopefully) bright side, this chapter is very, very long ;)

Thank you **so much** for all of your beautiful reviews! *hugs* I'll do what I can to update again before Christmas :]

 **Chapter 16**

Slipping her feet into her shoes, Elena tried to catch the words being exchanged in the corridor. There was some kind of commotion going on, however, with her hearing currently obscured by unapologetically thorough kisses being planted on her neck and near her ears it was difficult to hear anything at all.

"Damon!..." Elena whispered through her teeth, humorously chastising Damon for the third time, but to no avail.

She stifled a smile. Everyone seemed to be running around the house and it was a miracle no one had stormed into their room yet. She was worried that something bad had happened, but at the same time, it was difficult to feel really endangered knowing that everyone was so close, everyone was here, with them, at home.

The realization made Elena pause and she felt her heart skip a bit at the astonishing, ridiculous, happy thought that this moment now was probably as close to an ideal as it got. There was nothing they could ever do about the unavoidable backdrop of supernatural craziness that was going to accompany them this way or another forever. However, having her mom and dad and Jenna back from the dead made it so much easier to feel happy. Somehow it was even easier to breathe knowing that they were downstairs and she was going to talk them, spend time with them and that they were going to get to know Damon and she was going to get to know Isobel and John... Elena drew a breath. Never before had she allowed herself to entertain the idea. Mostly because it had always been out of reach. The possibility was gone before it had formed itself in her mind. But now... Now it was possible. Now it could actually happen. It could.

"I liked the mysterious smile better than the mysterious frown," Damon muttered against her cheek, wrapping his arms around Elena from behind and pressing a few more kisses to the side of her face.

Smiling faintly, Elena leaned into Damon's embrace. "What if this is all a trick? Like Caroline said. What if it won't last?"

"And why would a fan of selective dementia and gray hairdo worry about that?"

Elena shot him a narrowed-eyed look. "Having second thoughts about being human already?"

"Not at all. I'm just pointing out your predilection for the natural passing of time, which means that no matter what's the state of affairs right now, it won't last," Damon said with a shrug.

"Very comforting, thank you," Elena muttered flatly, but failed to bit back a laugh when Damon nuzzled her neck.

"Damon, we have to be quiet or- and! hurry up," she whispered, straightening up and turning around in his arms, beginning to button up his shirt for him.

"It would've been way more suspicious if the house was completely quiet," Damon said reassuringly, tapping Elena's nose to make the smile reappear and when it did, he brushed his lips against hers. "The noise can very well mean they're playing tag," he offered with a small smirk in an exaggeratedly relaxed tone of voice, leaning down for another kiss and pouting when Elena dodged it.

"I can see Hope convincing everyone to do that. Unfortunately I don't think that's it," she said, sliding off the bed and reaching for her dress, but then a series of footsteps near the door froze her in place.

She locked eyes with Damon and in wordless understanding they scampered under the bed.

"As unnecessary as it is, since we're almost married-" Damon fell silent when Elena covered his mouth with her hand.

"And almost naked," she whispered right before someone walked into the room.

She smiled, feeling Damon kiss the inside of her hand. Then they both held their breaths, but relaxed when they recognized Jeremy's voice.

After checking the bathroom, Jeremy yelled that the room was clear and then he left, unfortunately leaving the door wide open.

"Why it's always him," Damon murmured, turning his head to look at Elena who had just picked up a bra lying on the floor between them and was now scrutinizing it with a grimace that turned into an amused smile when she realized it belonged to her.

"You haven't been cleaning under the bed for five years?" She asked under her breath, shaking the dust off her bra.

Damon smiled back, but there was something sad in his smile that made Elena frown.

"I have. I was just always omitting this," he said in a low voice and Elena lowered her hand with the bra in it.

"I saw that," she said softly, wrapping her fingers around Damon's when he reached for her hand in that seemingly hesitant way that always made her think back to that warm evening in Denver. "I saw that earlier in our room, in the house, everywhere. All the little things, everything was like I left it five years ago."

"Does that come as a surprise?" Damon asked in a slightly humorous voice, but then added seriously. "I only live when you're with me, Elena. Time freezes every time I look away from you."

"You mean it freezes when you look _at_ me," Elena said, clinging to a happy mood, because she already felt tears well up in her eyes and she was sure that if she focused on that she'd start to cry.

Damon grimaced. "No, it freezes when I look away," he repeated, but then fell silent and looked as if he decided to revise his metaphor, after all.

Elena smiled and Damon's eyes lit up at the expression on her face, at the thought that it was the best way to live, just seeing her smile.

They looked at each other and simultaneously lifted their heads to kiss, but then they both bumped into the bed above them.

"And I'm guessing we're no longer immune to bruises," Damon muttered and Elena laughed.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Astor is dead," Kai said in a mockingly shocked voice. "That's," he stopped abruptly as if he was trying to find the correct word, "sad. Even though I can't remember what he looked like," he added with a chuckle, leaning back in his chair and looking between Lily, Gretta and Malcolm who were all sitting across from him. "All faces kind of blur together after a few years in... _nowhere_."

"Why are you here?" Lily asked in an even voice.

Gretta and Malcolm shot her quick looks.

Kai chortled. "Really? Is that your actual question? Because it's a very dumb question. Now, why would I visit the people who hoaxed me?" He wondered out loud in mock-consideration, putting a confused look on his face.

"We didn't abandon you," Gretta said sternly. "We were going to get you out after getting everyone else out-"

"Yes, abandonment issues," Kai interrupted her. "I may actually have them. I read they can lead to a suicide," he continued in the most fascinated tone ignoring Malcolm trying to cut him off. "Although that's the part I don't get, because why commit suicide if you can kill someone else instead?"

Before anyone realized what was happening, Kai shot a wiry ray of murky light at Gretta who burst into flames, a handful of ashes shooting in all directions within a second after which the room became completely quiet.

Malcolm sprang to his feet and looked around the room in horror while Lily was sitting as motionlessly as before, and only her eyes, fixed on Kai, seemed brighter, angrier now.

"What have you done?" Malcolm whispered in disbelief.

Kai gave him a funny look. "Killed her, duh." He laughed. "What do you think I'm going to do with you?"

Malcolm opened his mouth to speak, but before he managed to get a single word out he shared Gretta's fate.

"I can't help but notice you didn't go out of your way to save them," Kai said in a stage whisper, leaning forward in his chair. "Is that that..." he waved his hand, "no love spell or something?"

"What difference does the order make?" Lily asked in a flat, firm voice, holding his gaze.

Kai nodded in feigned appreciation. "Good point. I just have no patience, you know. So sorry about that," he said with a sigh, a grimace of almost sincere regret appearing on his face. "But if I didn't kill you, we'd have to talk, I'd have to listen to your explanations, you'd make amends, promise not to betray me again, blah, blah. And that'd be so boring. I don't really like listening to people. Unless they scream because they're scared," he snickered and then demonstrated a hushed scream for help before chuckling again. "So funny." He looked away, apparently drifting off in his thoughts. "But anyway-"

Lily shuddered and her eyes flew wide when all of a sudden Kai's body tumbled to the floor in front of her.

She barely had enough time to realize what had happened before a voice that sounded as if it floated to her from another world made her heart clench so painfully she thought she'd never exhale.

"Please hurry, we have to go, I only knocked him out. I doubt he'll remain unconscious for long."

A metallic sound of whatever it was that had served as a weapon being thrown away resounded in the room.

But Lily didn't move, didn't look up.

"Lilian."

She shuddered, but still refused to grant the apparition any sign of acknowledgment. Whatever she was hearing, it wasn't real.

"Lilian?"

Slow footsteps brought the voice closer, but Lily kept her eyes fixed on her hands, for the first time in what felt like an eternity remembering the origins of the gesture, when she'd sit in a drawing room listening to tirades about her irresponsible behavior and inappropriate interests.

"It is not you," she whispered... to herself, because to whom? She was alone in the room.

She was alone.

Desmond sighed and then his voice was near, too near, one knee on the floor.

" _Will you marry me?"_

" _I already said yes! Four times!"_

" _I know, but... Every time I ask, you say yes and then you kiss me. I have been greatly enjoying the pattern."_

His hands awkwardly floated over hers until she could feel their warmth on the backs of her hands, shivers shooting up her bones.

"It is not you."

"Oh but it is," Desmond said, sighed, his voice barely audible through the silence that seemed to surround her, seemed to have been surrounding her for so long.

Lily looked up and their eyes locked.

And neither of them noticed that Kai was already regaining his consciousness.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Where have you been?! Kai's disappeared!" Caroline shouted at Damon and Elena when they dashed into the crowded living room.

Everyone looked at them, including Hope, who happily hopped toward them with a tray of chocolate chip cookies.

"Yeah, we... heard he was missing," Damon said with a frown, "and we've been..." he glanced at Elena who kept tucking her hair behind her ears, which wasn't really helping with how adorably messy it looked anyway, "searching the attic," he concluded matter-of-factly.

"There is an attic in here?" Jeremy asked with sincere curiosity that made Enzo snicker, which earned both Jeremy and him their respective glares from both Damon and Elena.

"Yes, and the stairway that leads to it is invisible," Bonnie replied in a calm and theatrically ominous voice without shifting her eyes away from the grimoire she was reading.

Damon narrowed his eyes at her. "How is the jotter?"

Wordlessly, her gaze still fixed on the page, Bonnie showed a thumb up.

"We can't defeat his magic, but we can defeat him," Sheila said, glancing at Bonnie and the book in her hands. "We just have to get the magic out of him." She looked at Damon and her gaze was so devoid of even a trace of hostility toward him that it made him wonder how much Bonnie had managed to tell her within such a short amount of time.

"Sounds simple enough," Klaus observed cheerfully, receiving a glare from Sheila which made Jenna feel a little better about her own sense of discomfort caused by Klaus' presence, since not many people seemed to share it.

"Great," Caroline exclaimed sardonically. "I see everyone's extremely worried. "Mom, and this is how I became the most responsible person in town," she said, flashing Liz an artificial, perfect smile, before resuming her stern tone of voice. "Kai's _gone_! Do you need that repeated five more times?" She said, looking around the room in disbelief. "Before we start planning what we want to do with him, we should find him!"

"Obviously, there are more people than just us that were buried in this town and yet it's just us who... came back," Zach said, pronouncing the words as if he wasn't sure if they were good or bad. With a quick flutter of her fingers, Elena closed Damon's hand in hers feeling his stance become more rigid at the sound of Zach's voice. "Perhaps we should figure out the reason for that first."

Zach glanced at Gail who nodded slowly, but then couldn't help but grin again, squeezing Sarah's hand in hers. Sarah beamed at the recurring gesture.

Stefan's eyes flickered to Bonnie who for a second looked as if she was about to say something, but then changed her mind and after exchanging a longer look with her grandmother turned her attention back to the grimoire on her lap.

"Is there a chance Kai really left?" Sarah offered uncertainly from the couch on which she was sitting between her parents.

"Of course not!" Caroline said, annoyed, her voice so sharp it made Sarah flinch.

"Personally, I wouldn't rule out the possibility right away," Klaus said with a small smile and continued before Caroline started thinking he was being serious. "Perhaps he didn't want to get in the middle of all the arguments. You have a way of wearing people out, I have to say."

"What arguments?" Caroline demanded.

"Jenna's still upset with me," Klaus replied while Jenna snorted in frustration. "I gathered this gentleman here isn't the greatest fan of Damon," Klaus smirked, shifting his eyes between Damon and Zach, "young Jeremy's making sure his parents didn't miss out on his teenage rage and-"

"Oh, I'm sorry if I'm having a hard time readily forgiving having been murdered." Jenna said resentfully.

Elena's eyes darted to Hope who was fortunately preoccupied with describing to Miranda how she'd made the cookies heart-shaped.

"Alright." Stefan cleared his throat so loudly everyone looked toward him. "I know it's been the strangest afternoon and the last time most of you were here things were... different than they seem now, but..." he trailed off and drew a breath. "The thing is, they don't just seem different. They are different. And it's a hard-earned change that cost us... everything, really." He smiled mirthlessly. "The last several years were the worst. And the best." He glanced at Caroline, but didn't hold her gaze. "What I'm trying to say," he continued, looking pointedly at Damon who started making circular motions with his hand signaling for him to make his point, "is that lately we kind of had that one big happy family thing going on, and it wasn't easy to get there, so please, could you all at least try to focus on the future instead of the past?"

Enzo was about to start clapping his hands, but in that moment Elena looked at him and he waved to her with both hands instead.

"I agree," Klaus said with a broad smile and Caroline shot him a silencing glare that he promptly ignored, apparently considering himself completely untouchable because of a bodyguard in the form of a five-year-old child who was making fast friends with everyone, conveniently oblivious to all the grisly back stories.

"Me too," John quickly joined in, although Elena wasn't sure he really meant it since he was still glaring at Damon.

"Ever an individualist," Isobel observed sardonically, sipping her drink and only now Elena noticed that Enzo had his arm draped over the couch behind Isobel in such a way that it looked as if his arm was wrapped around her.

"We don't even know who Kai is," Grayson pointed out, apparently introducing yet another train of thought into the discussion.

"Same can be said about people whom we thought we knew," Jeremy observed with a hint of nonchalance in his tone, glancing at Elena who shook her head.

It wasn't the right time for this conversation and Elena thought Jeremy should give their parents some time to adjust to the world they came back to before questioning them about the past.

Grayson's eyebrows knitted together as he shifted his eyes between Elena and Jeremy.

"I'm afraid just knowing Kai's bad news will have to suffice for now," Liz replied softly, her tone of voice beginning to worry Caroline more and more.

At first she thought her mother was just tired and overwhelmed. After all, coming back from the dead could probably guarantee fatigue. But the longer she watched her, the more she was beginning to think that Liz was not feeling well. If it wasn't for Kai's disappearance she would've probably stayed upstairs and rest and that was unusual... unless-

Drawing a sharp intake of breath Caroline felt cold shivers run up her spine at the thought that her mother might've come back from the dead not cured from the illness that had killed her.

"I know you're confused, but-" Elena started, but Isobel cut her off.

"They shouldn't be. Enzo briefed us on the situation."

Enzo smiled complacently while Miranda slowly exhaled, glancing at Grayson who muttered that they knew as much about Enzo as about Kai.

"He did," Elena acknowledged, guessing from her mother's facial expression that Enzo's summary wasn't probably particularly considerate when it came to certain aspects of the situation.

"It was a rather... intense summary," Miranda allowed with a small smile that made Elena feel a little better, because she knew she meant it.

She always liked that about her mother. That she wouldn't smile unless she really felt like smiling.

"I didn't have much time, so I only covered three topics so far," Enzo explained in a businesslike tone. "All the villains we had to deal with, the fact that I'm still under the spell you somehow managed to break yourself out of, and your love story."

"In that order," Damon observed levelly.

"I'd worry more about the content," Elena added under her breath.

"Don't worry. I skipped the break-up story," Enzo said with a wink.

It took Elena a moment to realize what Enzo meant, but once she did, her eyes shifted slowly to Damon who had never been more grateful for Caroline to cut in.

"All the villains _we_ had to deal with?" Caroline snarled. "I don't remember you dealing with any villains."

"Kai's a villain," Hope confirmed with a worried frown.

She jumped to her feet and after looking around in search of a new place to sit, she quickly decided on a free spot next to Liz.

Enzo gave Caroline a triumphant smirk. "And I personally dealt with Kai. Ask Elena."

Isobel tilted her head to the side, glancing at Elena who was bracing herself for Caroline's attention turning to her, but fortunately it didn't just yet.

"Personally _and_ ineffectively," Caroline said with a thin smile.

"On the bright side, Elena's alive," Enzo insisted.

"On the not so bright side, you're still here," Caroline deadpanned.

"You might want to keep a weather eye in case Kai shows up," Damon cut into Enzo and Caroline's back-and-forth, narrowing his eyes at Klaus who raised his eyebrows in mildly amused bafflement. "Hope said you've never met a villain."

"He hasn't," Hope confirmed, grabbing another cookie, since no one seemed to care she'd already eaten three while skipping around the room.

Liz was watching her with a thoughtful smile that brightened even more when Hope noticed Jenna's gaze and misinterpreting the expression on her face promptly offered her a cookie.

"I'll be sure to be on the lookout, thank you for the heads-up," Klaus said, smirking, and then reached into his pocket when his phone started buzzing.

"Who is it?" Hope asked, bouncing in her seat.

Sheila was looking at her and at first Bonnie thought it was just a casual kind of scrutiny, but then she realized her grandmother's expression reminded her of what she'd looked like when she was watching her when she was Hope's age.

"It's... uncle Elijah," Klaus said slowly and then chuckled under his breath, glancing at Caroline and Stefan. "I forgot to call him after you'd apparently left him numerous voice mails."

"That was... a while ago. You haven't called him yet?" Caroline widened her eyes at him.

"We're more into texting now anyway. He doesn't really talk to me ever since, well, you know why."

The sight of a phone seemed to remind Jenna of something. "Do you have Ric's new number?" She asked, looking toward Damon and Elena. "I tried to call him, but his number's not answering."

Isobel's eyes slowly followed Jenna's inquiring gaze directed at Damon and Elena who exchanged an uncomfortable look.

"Oh, you know Ric. He probably forgot to pay the bill," Damon said with a forced smile, glancing at Elena when she poked him signaling it wasn't a good idea to try evading Jenna's inevitable inquiries.

Caroline squeezed her eyes shut. "Has anyone called Alaric?" She asked in a whisper, leaning toward Stefan.

"What for?" He replied in a matching tone. "To tell him that if Jo had been buried in Mystic Falls she would've been alive now?"

Caroline sighed with a frown.

"We haven't heard from him in five years," Stefan said in a voice loud enough for Jenna to hear, glancing at Damon who continued delivering a rather sketchy explanation.

Jenna widened her eyes at him. "What? Why?"

"I told you," Enzo cut in in a slightly exasperated tone. "He altered Elena's memories and never even apologized for it."

Elena briefly closed her eyes, thinking that now instead of telling her parents about everything that had happened in the last ten years or so they'd have to straighten out all of Enzo's stories he'd somehow already found the time to tell.

"It's more complicated than that," Elena decided to settle on for now to Jenna's visible discontent.

"I hope so," Isobel said with a small sigh.

"Why? Do you know him?" Enzo asked, picking up on the tone of Isobel's voice.

Isobel smiled pensively. "We were married."

Enzo widened his eyes at her. "You're kidding."

John snorted humorlessly, apparently sharing the sentiment.

"I have a question. Who would want to call Elijah and tell him you promised me the cure, but then you lost it?" Klaus asked and Caroline was beginning to lose her patience with how chipper he sounded.

It seems like he was having the time of his life and was simply enjoying a social gathering of some sort.

"You mask your deep concern for Hayley really well," Stefan pointed out.

"Hayley's my mom," Hope explained to Liz, catching the name. After a moment of consideration she gasped. "Is the next full moon coming soon?"

"Not very soon but soon enough," Sheila said with a comforting smile, still watching Hope very closely.

"Is there any point to this entire discussion?" John asked sharply. "I feel like nothing of any importance has been said so far."

"Until now of course," Isobel said wryly to Enzo's amusement.

"Where is the new guy?" Jeremy asked, after looking around the room for a few moments and realizing that only Desmond was not present.

"You're right! He's not here either. Maybe he helped Kai escape?" Caroline exclaimed, struck by the thought. "Who is he anyway?"

"That's what I've been trying to find out," Stefan added, giving Damon and Elena an exaggeratedly questioning look.

"It's complicated," Elena said with a small grimace.

Caroline snorted. "Meaning what? That he's your child from the future or something? I don't see how it can be anything more complicated that what we're already dealing with."

"Meaning..." Elena trailed off and then said in lower voice. "I'm sure he didn't help Kai escape. He actually left earlier to talk to someone," she added, glancing at Damon whose suddenly anxious thoughts on whether it was possible Desmond was only playing his part and perhaps he was connected to Kai, after all, dispersed at Elena's words.

"To whom?" Caroline asked with a confused frown.

Damon looked at Elena and then rolled his eyes, quickly guessing the answer.

"Doesn't matter," he said with an artificial smile. "He's probably dead by now. R.I.P. to him," he added, heading toward the window where the bourbon was sitting on a small table, but John's voice stopped him halfway through the room.

"And he's an alcoholic too."

Damon turned around. "In addition to?"

"Please, stop," Elena cut in, glaring at John.

"You really want me to start on that?" John asked, giving Damon a questioning look.

"OK." Isobel rose to her feet and to Elena's relief interrupted the exchange. "What's the plan and how can I help?"

"That's a great attitude," Caroline said with a smile that immediately faded. "But unfortunately we don't have a plan."

"To give you an idea how well we've been doing," Damon said, getting the glasses out and deciding to pour drinks for everyone. "Our previous plans included: Stefan's plan of trying to talk to Lily and Elena's plan of trying to talk to Lily."

"Who is Lily?" Grayson muttered in a flat, grim voice and then looked questioningly between Miranda and Jenna who both chuckled briefly at the tone of his voice.

"Both plans have failed, I'm guessing?" Isobel said, amused.

Damon turned away from the bourbon stand. "That's an understatement." He shifted his eyes to Elena who squinted in mock annoyance.

Suddenly, a door bell rang, followed by a loud, rattling noise.

"I'll go get it." After a moment of silence Stefan turned toward the door.

"I'll go with you," Damon said when the door bell resounded again and again and the impatient knocking grew louder.

"I'll give you three seconds to realize why you can't go with me and then you can go to the kitchen and make yourself a cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows," Stefan said dryly and shot Damon a brief smile before heading into the hallway.

Damon's forehead wrinkled in bewilderment, but then the realization dawned on him and he squeezed his eyes shut for a second before making to follow Stefan anyway.

"Damon," Elena grabbed his hand and blocked his way. "You have to be more careful now," she said in a low voice, her eyes pleading with him.

"Elena, I'm not going to be hiding in the corner just because I'm human," Damon whispered back.

"Just so you know, we can still hear you," Jeremy said, walking up to the window to take a look outside.

"He is linked to everyone," Bonnie suddenly said, effectively interrupting all other conversations.

Jeremy turned away from the window. "What?"

"He linked himself to everyone," Bonnie repeated, looking up from the grimoire. "I found the spell that he used. That's why he brought so many people back. They live as long as he lives. If we try to take away any of his power or hurt him, we'll also hurt someone here."

Caroline tilted her head backwards with a stifled groan. "Don't tell me we're in for searching for another unlinking spell."

"Can't we just transfer his power into someone else?" Liz asked, leaning forward to look at Bonnie.

"It doesn't work like that, I'm afraid," Sheila said slowly.

"He lives through them and they live through him, energy-wise, so if you interrupt the flow of energy even for a second, everyone will die," Bonnie said, hair hands resting on the open grimoire.

"So we just have to let him be?" Sarah asked.

"Aw, that's a nice thought, thank you. I will remember you said that."

Damon and Elena abruptly turned around while everyone's eyes flew to the doorway where Kai appeared.

Hope's eyes grew wide, but then she quickly looked over her shoulder when she felt someone place a comforting hand on her arm. Liz gave her a soft smile.

Klaus looked between them, a ghost of a smile flickering across his face.

"Don't blame him, he didn't invite me in, I kind of... barged in," Kai said with a smirk, glancing at Stefan who returned into the room with a grim expression on his face.

"Goes without saying," Damon muttered caustically.

"I don't believe we've met," Klaus rose to his feet, drawing Kai's attention to him.

"I'm not really into making friends, but hi," Kai said with a wave of his hand. "I'm sure your brains are _fried_ from trying to guess out what I'm doing here, so I'm actually going to explain that to you very quickly. I accidentally overheard that you figured out the 'don't hurt me if you don't want to get hurt' rule. It's really that simple. You won't bother me, I won't bother you."

"And we're supposed to just let you roam around our town?" Elena interrupted him in an icy tone that earned her a worried look from all of her parents except for Isobel who smiled.

"Ugh, I hate this town," Kai said with a grimace of disgust. "I'm not going to stay here."

"If we may recommend a destination, a deserted island would be beyond compare," Damon offered.

Caroline noticed that Klaus was about to contribute to the conversation, so she quickly scooted closer to him and widened her eyes at him in a silencing expression. She had no doubt that together with Damon they could successfully aggravate Kai within seconds, but she didn't think it was the best course of action right now.

Kai sighed. "Do I have to kill someone for everyone to stop talking? I can't finish a sentence. So," he continued, undeterred by every person in the room glaring at him. "Surprise, surprise, the only thing that I want from you is a spell. And then I'm out of here and as long as you don't follow, you can keep your dead dears." He chuckled. "How is that for a deal?"

"What spell are you talking about?" Bonnie asked impatiently, rising to her feet with a grimace.

Sheila slowly shifted her eyes to Kai, looking him up and down.

"A time-traveling spell."

For a second the room was perfectly silent and then Jeremy laughed. Kai gave him an offended look.

"A spell like that doesn't exist," Sheila offered flatly.

"In other words, stop watching too much TV and get a life," Damon said, squinting.

"I don't believe you," Kai said, his eyes fixed on Bonnie. "There are spells for everything. Vampires are real. Witches are real. People are coming back from the dead all the time. Why would time-traveling be the only not possible magical trick?"

"I'm telling you, there's no such thing!" Bonnie exclaimed in irritation, quickly walking up to Kai. "Traveling in time is not possible. There's no spell for that."

"If there was, we'd be more than happy to send you back to... whenever you want to go," Stefan said sourly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"To when you'd like to go anyway?" Caroline asked with a grimace. "And why?"

Kai smiled, but didn't answer.

"Who cares? It's not possible, get it?"

Bonnie was glaring at Kai without blinking and for a few moments Kai was just looking back at her, but then a quick, malicious smile passed through his face and Bonnie's eyes widened at the sound of a stifled cry behind her.

She turned around and gasped seeing Sheila trying to catch her breath, but choking repeatedly instead.

"Stop it!" Bonnie shouted, turning back toward Kai. "I'm telling you the truth! In the last five years Damon and I have read every spell book, every grimoire we could find. If we had come across a time-traveling spell we'd have remembered it!"

Bonnie's voice was loud and angry, but beneath the aggravation was sincerity that seemed to at last convince Kai, because the muscles in his face twitched and he let go of Sheila.

Bonnie exhaled sharply, but the relief lasted only for a second.

"Then I guess I was being nice for no reason," Kai said, curling up his hands into fists and the more he was doing it, the more screams erupted from the room, all the people who came back, one by one, were beginning to lose their ability to breathe, their faces contorting in pain.

Elena looked around the room in panic.

"Wait!" Damon's head snapped into Kai's direction. "Maybe there's something we missed," he tried, looking to Bonnie for support, but there was a dark glow in her gaze that he remembered well enough to know she was past negotiating treaties and playing someone else's game, no matter the cost.

"There isn't," she repeated succinctly, clenching her teeth and then tossing Kai against the wall which couldn't do much damage to him but at least served as a temporary distraction.

He got up immediately, more darkly amused than angry, but before he resumed his earlier task Isobel spoke up.

"Actually, there may be one grimoire they haven't looked into."

Enzo followed her with his gaze as she slowly made her way across the room, her voice even and indifferent, despite the fact that moments ago she wasn't able to breathe.

"Nonsense," Bonnie insisted, ignoring the pleading look Elena was giving her.

A flicker of a smile passed through Isobel's face. "The Grimoire of Antecedents."

Bonnie glanced at her grandmother.

"This grimoire is only _believed_ to exist," Sheila observed stoically, narrowing her eyes at Isobel.

"Oh, I can assure you it does exist. I held it in my hands."

"It has a time-traveling spell in it?" Kai asked in a low voice, his eyes boring into Isobel, trying to read her.

"I have no idea. I haven't read all of it."

"Where is it?" Kai asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Durham, North Carolina."

Damon and Elena exchanged looks.

"Not to rain on your time-traveling parade," Damon cut in, squinting, "but Ric might've done _some_ cleaning up in your office."

Isobel smiled. "I didn't keep that grimoire, and a few other things, at Duke."

"Good," Damon said with a strained smile, looking at Isobel, all the while wondering if she was making it all up. "Well, it looks like you booked yourself the worst road trip ever."

Laughing under his breath, Kai shook his head. "Oh no, no, no. I'm not going anywhere. I want you to bring it to me. I'll wait here and... since you mentioned TV, I saw it in one movie and thought it was _so_ cool. I'll be killing one person every hour, so you better hurry up."

"That's a four-hour drive one way," Elena protested.

"Then you have to drive _really_ fast," Kai said with a shrug.

"Don't be ridiculous. No one will bring you anything if you kill even one person," Damon said, glancing at Stefan who didn't look like he thought the whole idea was a good one.

"That's not true, but because I'm in a pretty good mood today I'll give you two days to come back with the book," Kai said, lifting two fingers up in the air. "So... the two of you can go," he said, looking between Isobel and Damon.

"Wait a minute, what if they don't come back?" John interrupted.

"Why wouldn't they come back?" Jeremy asked, confused.

"Because I don't trust either of them," John replied and even Caroline rolled her eyes, although Elena had a feeling John had an ulterior motif for his outburst.

"I'm going with them," he announced.

"The worst road trip it is," Isobel said in a monotonous tone.

John shot her a look.

"Take my car. It has a surprise in the trunk," Kai said, tossing his car keys at Damon who grabbed Elena's head and still glaring at Kai headed for the door.

"Hey, I didn't say she was going!" Kai called after them. "I need someone you care for here. Otherwise you may really not come back."

"I'm not going anywhere without Elena _and_ I care about everyone here, so take your pick," Damon said angrily, turning toward Kai for a second before leaving the room with Elena's hand in his.

Smiling to herself, Elena was watching Damon out of the corner of her eye as they walked outside.

"Just to clarify, the feeling isn't mutual in all cases," Caroline said after a longer moment of silence.

Jeremy bit back a smile that faded completely when Kai threw himself on one of the couches.

"So... who wants to play Duck, Duck, Goose?" Kai asked and raised his hand. "Telephone? Rock-Paper-Scissors? Scrabble? Truth or Dare?" He continued asking with his hand still in the air while no one else joined him. "Karaoke?"

"We don't want to play any games with you," Hope said with a huff.

Klaus smiled.

"That about sums it up," Bonnie said with a thin smile, crossing her arms over chest and walking back to where she'd been sitting next to Sheila.

Kai shook his head and sighed. "And people say I'm not nice."


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: It looks like I did manage to post another chapter before Christmas! Yay! ^^

Thank you so much for all of your awesome reviews! :):):)

And to answer ScarletRose's question: I think right now we have so many characters to deal with, that adding even more characters into the mix would be a bad idea. But since I don't have this fic outlined till the very end, everything is possible in the distant future ;)

I would also like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a Very Beautiful and Very Merry Christmas! May this be a truly magical time of the year for you.

I appreciate each of you so much. It means a lot to me that **you** make my stories a part of your life :]

 **May Love always reign in your hearts, keep you brave, happy and safe. Merry Christmas! :)**

 **Chapter 17**

Damon opened the trunk expecting to find something appalling in there, but Kai's surprise turned out to be mildly morbid at best.

Elena was about the ask what was in the trunk, but before she managed to finish her sentence or look inside, Damon slammed the trunk shut.

"No room for suitcases," he muttered under his breath, glancing at Isobel and John who walked up to them.

"Then it's good we aren't bringing any," Elena replied, slightly narrowing her eyes at Damon.

When she opened the trunk, her cautiously amused smile at the grumpiness in Damon's voice disappeared off her face. She gasped at the sight of Lily and Desmond tied up and gagged, their eyes glossy and red-rimmed as if they'd been staring into a blinding light for a long time.

"Are you sure we can't just leave them in there?" Damon proposed offhandedly, but Elena only shot him a look while already assisting Desmond and Lily in getting out of the trunk.

"Who is that?" John asked suspiciously, reluctantly assisting in untying the strangers since that was what Elena was doing.

"Kai's taken my magic," Lily said quietly when Damon and Elena started arguing whether to untie her hands.

"Great. Then we can just kill you," Damon said, giving Lily a quick smile.

John glanced at Isobel, frowning in disapproval at the hint of amusement in her expression.

"All of Lily's friends are dead," Desmond said calmly and Damon found it a little unnerving that he seemed to completely ignore the threat as if he didn't even consider the possibility of Damon carrying through with it.

"Her friends? That's what she told you? Last time I checked they were her _family_ ," Damon said sardonically.

Elena looked at Lily, unable not to feel affected by the bereaved expression on her face. Whether they understood it or not, she was really in mourning and she looked hurt by Damon's tone.

"They _were_ my family," Lily insisted with stubborn defiance, her eyes flaring up for a second.

Elena placed her hand on Damon's arm stopping him from replying, because the exchange could only escalate into a heated argument and they didn't have time for that.

"Are they going or staying?" Isobel asked matter-of-factly, giving Damon and Elena a questioning look. "I don't mind, as long as they don't get to control the radio."

"It depends who they are," John pointed out.

Isobel shrugged. "You're no one special and you're going, so," she said without looking at him.

Elena bit her lip, stifling a nervous smile. She still hoped this trip could turn out to be more pleasant than it seemed possible so far.

"Lily and Desmond, Damon's parents. Isobel and John, my parents," Elena made the quick introduction after taking a sharp intake of breath that somehow didn't allow her to utter the sentence in a casual tone as she'd intended to do. "Sort of," she added under her breath, glancing at Damon who seemed a little stunned by her words and made sure to be looking at Isobel and John rather than at Lily and Desmond. Especially Desmond.

Lily's eyes darted between them. She seemed taken aback and confused by her secret being spoken out loud.

"How did you-" she started, not even sure who was the addressee of her question, but John cut her off, more concerned with how he was being presented.

"Sort of?" He smiled mirthlessly, trying to catch Elena's gaze.

"Sort of is right," Isobel said in a sing-song, indifferent voice, pointing to the car. "We're wasting time."

"They aren't going," Damon said when John was about to let Lily enter the car first.

"Where are we going?" Lily asked in a slightly detached tone that nonetheless sounded softer than before and Elena wondered if it was Kai's atrocities or Desmond's influence that caused it.

" _You_ aren't going anywhere," Damon repeated and then looked at Elena when he felt her gaze at him.

"Maybe it's not a bad idea," Elena tried in a low voice.

"Maybe what isn't a bad idea?" Damon asked incredulously, widening his eyes at her. "She-"

"The car is big enough," Elena said quickly to prevent Damon from calling Lily out on her worst deeds, because going anywhere together surely wouldn't be easy if John was made aware of Lily being responsible for her five-year-long coma, among other things.

"Elena."

"Damon."

"Can I have the car keys?" Isobel asked after a moment of watching Damon and Elena just stare at each other.

Elena glanced at her over Damon's shoulder. "If Kai is mad at your mother, leaving them in the house together is not a good idea," she argued in a low voice, her eyes searching Damon's, her hand squeezing his arm, reminding John of when he'd walked in on them at the Mystic Grill.

With an inward frown, he had to reluctantly admit that even back then there was something unexpectedly tender, something intimate about their interactions that worried him. He remembered thinking that whatever strange connection they shared it was unbreakable.

"So we should take her along to keep her safe?" Damon asked in overdramatic disbelief.

"That and we should just try spending some time together," Elena said in the most optimistic tone she could muster, trying not to laugh at the expression that appeared on Damon's face.

"You do realize that makes you crazier than her," he muttered, giving up.

Elena pressed a quick kiss to his lips and scooted into the passenger's seat with a smile.

"One suspicious move and you're dead." Damon gave Lily a long look before walking around the car.

"I don't think that's a polite way to speak to your mother," Desmond said before he managed to stop himself.

Elena closed her eyes shut.

Damon turned on his heels toward Desmond. "Polite? She tried to kill Elena."

Desmond blinked.

"What?" John exclaimed in indignation.

Elena got out of the car, feeling that interfering might be in order, but Isobel was quicker to intervene.

"And we tried to kill Damon, you and I," she observed with slight nonchalance, propping her hand on the trunk.

"No. We were trying to kill all the vampires in town. That was different. That was the right thing to do," John retorted stiffly.

"How is killing anyone a right thing to do?" Desmond asked, shifting his eyes between everyone in sincere confusion.

"You've been out of town for a while, haven't you?" Isobel asked with a glint of friendly sarcasm in her gaze.

Damon bit back a smile and let Elena drag him back toward the driver's seat.

"Everyone _please_ get inside," she called out, jumping into the car herself, her eyes immediately spotting a few drops of blood on the steering wheel. "Where did Kai get this car?" She murmured with a frown.

"I think we can safely assume its rightful owner is in a better place now," Damon said, pulling a tissue from the compartment in front of Elena and wiping off the blood. "Blood. That's disgusting," he added, glancing at her.

Elena returned his smile and leaned her head against the headrest with a sigh. It was going to be a terrible trip and yet she couldn't get rid of that strange, fluttering feeling of excitement that maybe, just maybe, it could be one of the best trips and one they will always remember.

xxxdelenaxxx

"OK, so what's your plan?" Caroline demanded in a decisive tone, turning in her seat and giving Klaus a questioning look.

She had put on a show about being a mayor and having some urgent matters to attend to, like Klaus had asked her to do in a text message he had sent her while sitting in the other side of the room. Kai had seemed to believe her or perhaps he just didn't believe there was a way to defeat him, so he hadn't protested when along with Liz, Klaus and Hope the four of them had left the boarding house.

"Movie? Dinner?" Klaus offered innocently.

Caroline promptly offered him a glare in exchange.

"I'm not hungry," Hope called out from her car seat in the back where she was sitting next to Liz who was looking between Caroline and Klaus with such peaceful demeanor that for some reason it was making Caroline feel even less comfortable about the entire situation.

What was also far from helpful was that she couldn't figure out how Stefan was feeling about all of it. Was he mad at her? Did he care at all? She couldn't read him and it frustrated her to no end, because she used to think she could read him so well. Back when they were friends his tone of voice over the phone could reveal his real mood to her, no matter what he'd be claiming out loud. And now that they were... she didn't even know what to call them now, now she looked at him and she couldn't tell what he was thinking. It was painful in some strange, simple, raw way.

If only they could turn back time and go back to when their friendship was the safe, safest harbor in the whole world.

"Neither am I," Caroline said, flashing Hope a smile before going back to glaring at Klaus who smiled, his eyes twinkling with amusement.

Liz looked at the hard lines of Caroline's profile and it felt both wrong and in some odd, inexplicably disarming way comforting that Liz thought might have something to do with having been dead, that it was obvious to her that Caroline's irritation wasn't caused by the fact that the man next to her had killed or nearly killed quite a few of their friends, but rather by some inner battle she couldn't win.

There were no limits to love as there were no limits to forgiveness, Liz thought, and if there was one human quality she cherished most, that would be it. Humanity wasn't about being human. It was about the ability to give in to one's heart, instead of one's mind.

"We're meeting my sister," Klaus said at last. "She may know a way to stop Kai, at least temporarily."

Caroline snorted mirthlessly. "And here I thought causing people's cars to tumble into the river was the height of Rebekah's abilities."

Klaus gave her a small, lop-sided smile. "I didn't mean Rebekah. I meant Freya. Although personally I would've given Rebekah a bit more credit too."

"Freya?" Caroline asked, giving Klaus a questioning look. "How could she help?"

"She might know how to put Kai to sleep for a hundred years. Granted a hundred years isn't long, but-"

"That'd be good enough," Caroline interrupted him, a glimmer of hope brightening her gaze. She widened her eyes at him and tapped the steering wheel. "Let's go."

"After we meet with Aunt Freya, could we watch _Barbie In Rock 'n Royals_?" Hope asked, tilting her head to the side.

"I'm not sure this movie is out yet, sweetheart," Klaus said, starting the engine and glancing at Hope in the mirror.

"Yes, it is," Hope said, nodding in absolute certainty. "Damon's already seen it."

xxxdelenaxxx

"I have an ice-breaker question," Damon said conversationally after ten minutes of perfect silence that fell inside the car once they turned into the main road. "Does that grimoire actually exist?"

Isobel smiled, her gaze following the fast-changing landscape on the other side of the car window. "Yes, it does and I really have it. Well, I had it last time I was in Durham. But apparently it's been a few years, so I can't guarantee the place didn't go up in flames in the meantime."

"I guess that's as close to certainty as it gets," Elena said with a sigh, glancing at Damon.

"What grimoire do you speak of?" Lily asked in a low voice, slowly looking between everyone.

There was something in her voice that made Damon's hands tighten around the steering wheel, Elena noticed and she thought the reason for this might be that Lily's voice didn't sound as cold as before and it must've reminded Damon of the past, of when it hadn't probably sounded cold at all.

"And where are we going?" Lily asked again when Isobel's explanation concerning the grimoire didn't clear up anything for her.

"I have a question," John said, squinting.

Damon smiled. "I knew all everybody needed was just a bit of encouragement. Ask away."

Lily tilted her head to the side, giving John a slightly annoyed look, considering his interruption rather rude.

"How did it happen?" John asked flatly.

Elena wrinkled her forehead in confusion, shifting in her seat to look at him. "How did Kai happen?"

"No. How did _he_ happen?" John rephrased his question, meaningfully shifting his gaze from Elena to Damon and back to Elena.

"Ask the guys behind you," Damon said, glancing into the mirror but quickly looking away from Desmond's intent gaze. "At least that's what they claim."

Elena looked to the back of the car, giving Desmond a brief, warm smile. He weakly smiled back, but she didn't think he knew Damon well enough yet to know that he went as close to acknoledging that they might be related as it was possible for now and in fact, it happened even sooner than Elena thought it would. Slowly, Lily lifted her gaze from her hands to look at her.

"This is a serious question," John insisted.

Isobel rested her head against the window and narrowed her eyes at Elena which strangely encouraged her to speak despite how intimidating it looked at the surface. For a second she wondered if she had a glimpse of that in her gaze too, because Caroline had mentioned it once, years ago. Something about appearing aloof. She wondered if in case of Isobel it was as misleading an impression as in her case.

"How did Damon happen?" Elena smiled pensively, running her fingertips along her seatbelt, looking at Damon whose eyes were on the road but his facial expression clearly indicated he was listening carefully, his attention fully on her.

"That's what I asked myself that night on the Wickery Bridge when I tossed my daylight ring into the river," Elena said after a pause, her voice rendering everyone speechless and motionless, because it trembled with emotions, with genuine determination to speak straight from the heart. "I wanted to die because I thought everything was over, I thought... I couldn't be a vampire, I couldn't live like that, I failed everyone. And then- And then Damon showed up out of nowhere and I looked at him and-" Elena quickly brushed the tears off her eyes with a stifled laugh. "And I was so stunned to see him and at the same time I realized I knew I'd see him, because he was always there for me. No matter what I'd say or do, he'd always stand by me, try to do everything to help me, risk anything to save me. And in that moment on the bridge everything fell into place, it all became so clear to me and I couldn't understand... how did it happen? How did it happen that I didn't realize earlier that he happened to me?" Elena said, her voice breaking, her eyes lighting up in a feverish smile. "That this love happened to me. He loved me and I loved him. I loved him. I knew I did. I knew I did since my birthday a year before, but it wasn't until that night on the bridge that I realized I _wanted_ to love him and I _wanted_ him to love me."

Damon wasn't even aware of the fact how fast he was driving, his mind reeling from Elena's words. It wasn't like he didn't know, didn't feel everything she was describing, but hearing it spoken out loud was still almost surpassing his comprehension.

And he didn't seem to be the only one if the silence in the car was any indication.

Elena turned in her seat even more to look directly at John who was sitting very stiffly, clearly taken aback by Elena's reply, not expecting to hear that kind of detailed answer.

"He made me feel alive when I was dead. Made me feel loved when I felt unlovable. Made me laugh when I thought I'd never stop crying. He made me love myself. Made me feel free."

Elena smiled, blinking back the tears and after pressing a soft, quick kiss to Damon's cheek she sat upright in her seat again, facing the windshield.

Glancing at Damon out of the corner of her eyes she saw that he looked completely overwhelmed and it made her feel very glad that she'd said all of that out loud, which wasn't easy, since she didn't feel that comfortable with all the people they were currently in the car with. No matter how sure he was of her love and no matter how much time would pass it seemed that a part of him would always be amazed by her love confessions.

"Next question, I guess? Unless you need a more complex answer?" Isobel gave John a questioning look.

John cleared his throat and turned his gaze to the window.

"What's that sound?" Desmond asked, shaking himself out of the reverie caused by Elena's words and by the fact that Lily had been listening to her very attentively, which gave Desmond hope that she cared about the past and cared about her children more than she would now allow herself to admit.

"The engine?" Damon offered with a hint of humor in his voice, but then frowned when the familiar sound of a police car became audible to everyone.

He rolled his eyes at the expected delay in their schedule caused by the need to compel the police officer-

Elena looked at him at the same time when he looked at her, the realization simultaneously dawning on both of them.

After stopping the car, Damon looked at Lily over his shoulder. "When you said Kai took away your magic, did you also mean such trivial skills as compulsion?"

Lily nodded. "I'm afraid so."

Biting back a groan, Damon leaned his head against the headrest, shifting his eyes to Elena who gave him a small smile, tapping his hand in a comforting gesture.

"We'll just pay the ticket," she said with a shrug.

"Unless this car's been stolen and Kai did the unspeakable to its owner. Which is highly unlikely, of course," Damon said, smiling a little on the way Elena blinked and then squeezed her eyes shut.

xxxdelenaxxx

" _Lassie Come-Home_! I love this movie!" Kai exclaimed with a happy grin, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a cabinet with a DVD collection, most of the discs scattered all over the carpet around him.

"Man, you've got issues," Enzo muttered, watching him from the couch with a sour expression on his face.

"He does, but... the movie is good. I like it too," Sarah said, glancing at Enzo from above the glass she was holding in her hands.

Enzo shifted his eyes to her, amused.

"Who wants to watch Lassie?" Kai asked, turning around to give the four people in the room a questioning look.

Gail and Zach looked at each other, less than thrilled to end up being stuck in charge of keeping an eye on the psychopath. Somehow everyone else managed to escape his presence. After Elena, Damon, Isobel and John had gone to retrieve the Grimoire of Antecedents, Caroline, Klaus, Liz and Hope had left, followed by Bonnie announcing to Grayson and Miranda that Elena and Jeremy had found out about the Whitmore experiments and suggesting they should talk about it, which resulted in just that, despite the fact that Grayson had blanched at the idea. An hour later Bonnie and Sheila had gone upstairs, despite Kai's childish protests that they were ruining the movie night.

"What do you need the time-travel spell for?" Zach asked, thinking that if they couldn't escape the situation entirely, they should at least try getting some answers that could come in handy in the future.

It was very unlikely the spell existed, but even if it did, giving it to Kai would be madness and Zach was rather certain everyone was of the same opinion. Regardless of that, knowing Kai's motivation might prove useful in coming up with a way to defeat him.

Kai extended his arms in a gesture of complete honesty. "I want to travel in time."

"Take it from someone who have lived through several centuries," Enzo said, leaning back in his seat and crossing his ankles. "There's no time period in which any woman would find you attractive."

Sarah bit her lip and narrowed her eyes at Enzo and Zach wasn't sure he liked just how often his daughter seemed to be stifling a smile at something Enzo would say. He didn't seem trustworthy to him and the fact that he was apparently Damon's friend was definitely not making him look more favorable in his and Gail's eyes.

"Is everything alright?" Stefan asked, walking into the room and shooting Kai an annoyed glare.

"As alright as it can be," Sarah observed with a sigh.

"Oh, it's good to see you," Kai said, giving Stefan an artificial smile before dropping his eyes back to DVDs in his hand. "I'm actually getting impatient here, so do tell Damon to hurry up."

"I'm sure they aren't going to spend any extra days sightseeing," Stefan snapped.

Kai snickered. "Yes, well, hopefully not. It'd be embarrassing to collapse in the middle of the street."

Sarah and Enzo exchanged confused frowns.

"What are you talking about?" Stefan demanded in a low, upset voice.

"Don't worry about that," Kai said dismissively, reaching for another DVD and looking at the back of it with exaggerated interest. "I just made sure they wouldn't try delaying their return." He looked up and gave Stefan a cheery smile. "Time's a funny thing. It has a way of catching up with you, no matter what."

xxxdelenaxxx

Desmond looked around the small police station marveling at all the things that seemed to casually exist while he wasn't sure what they could be used for. He'd heard about many innovations from the people passing through, but hearing about certain things was different from actually seeing them.

"It's a screen saver," Lily whispered to him with the expertise of someone who had also learned this not so long ago.

Desmond shifted his eyes to her from the computer he was indeed looking at from the distance, its screen flickering.

"Why did you try to hurt Elena? What happened between Damon and you?" He asked in a low voice, even though no one was listening to them, Damon and Elena busy trying to get them all out of this predicament with Isobel and John close by. "Why is he so upset with you?"

"He found out I wasn't who he thought I was," Lily said pensively. "Isn't that always the greatest disappointment?" She looked up at Desmond, her voice softer than her gaze.

"I thought you were... gone," Desmond replied quietly, the implication all too clear to him.

"You said as much," Lily acknowledged succinctly, their brief conversation in the house before Kai had regained his consciousness enough for her to believe he was telling the truth and yet a part of her couldn't shake off the feeling that the truth wasn't enough.

"I know I failed you. I failed both of you. It doesn't matter why or whether it was my fault or my negligence," Desmond spoke in a low, but firm voice that sent shivers up Lily's spine. It felt as if every fiber of her body remembered his voice and for some unimaginable reasons she didn't know if she wanted to fight the feeling. "But I'll make it up to you. I'll fight for you. I'll fight for both of you."

Lily's mouth twitched into a bitter smile. "Don't make his mistake," she said, glancing at Damon. "I'm not the person you remember."

Desmond nodded slowly and then reached out and very deliberately took Lily's hand in his. She frowned.

"Maybe not," he said, lifting his gaze to look at her. "But you're still the person I love."

Lily stared at him.

Isobel shifted her gaze from them to Damon and Elena. Who knew the most annoying part of not being a vampire was the inability to hear what was being said in the other side of the room?

"Officer, do you really think we'd meet up with my parents and my fiancé's parents and go steal a minivan?" Elena asked with a humorless smile, looking at the policeman over the counter and hoping that he could see how honest they were being.

Everything they had said was the truth... or at least as close to the truth as it was possible without appearing completely crazy.

John rubbed his forehead in a nervous gesture, apparently having developed an allergy to several words, a "fiancé" being one of them.

"Miss, I've dealt with misdemeanors more ridiculous than this, I assure" the officer replied, glancing at the calendar at the wall to write down the date on a piece of paper he was filling out.

"The point is, we didn't do it," Damon insisted, thinking that soon they'd have to resort to more drastic measures, although risking jail, moreover risking jail while being human was probably not the idea Elena would appreciate.

"Of course you didn't. In my job I deal almost only with people who did nothing wrong."

"We didn't know this car was stolen," Damon said in the calmest tone he could muster, even though the policeman was beginning to really irritate him.

"We borrowed this car," John amended matter-of-factly.

"From someone who doesn't exist," the policeman said with a smile that clearly indicated he was also losing patience.

"No offense, but the fact that he doesn't exist in your database doesn't mean that he doesn't exist at all," Isobel pointed out with a smile coy enough to weaken the officer's glare a little.

"Hey, they ran out of tuna, would you believe it-" Another policeman who had just walked into the station stopped in his tracks, almost dropping the food he was carrying. "Elena!"

Everyone turned around while the officer who was questioning them shifted his gaze between his friend and the group he was seriously considering arresting for the night.

"Tyler!" Elena smiled at him, relieved at the sight of a familiar face.

"What are you doing here?" Tyler asked, putting the boxes in his hands on the nearest chair and running up to her. "How are you... awake?" He asked, looking around the room and blinking a few times at the sight of John and Isobel.

"Awake?" The other policeman repeated, tapping his pen against the counter before putting it away. "At least that part was true."

"We were just trying to explain that Elena was in a coma for five years and that's why we weren't paying the greatest attention to the speed limit while heading out to the engagement party thrown by our parents," Damon recited smoothly.

"Speeding aside, you were driving a stolen vehicle," the officer insisted.

"More than a regular party," John seemed unable to stop himself from adding, which somehow seemed to add credibility to the story, because the policeman snorted under his breath.

"I'm beginning to believe you," he said, rolling his eyes at them. "Do you know them?" He asked, giving Tyler a questioning look.

"Yes, they're my friends from high school," Tyler confirmed, giving Elena a hug. "Why no one called me that you were awake?" He asked, shaking his head. Then a thought crossed his mind and he drew a sharp breath. "Is Bonnie-"

"She's fine," Damon said and Tyler exhaled, returning Elena's smile. "As fine as she can be, with Kai back in town."

"What?!" Tyler exclaimed.

"OK, I'll leave you to it, then," the other policeman said, grabbing his jacket and walking out of the room.

"We're in a hurry," Elena said, glancing at Damon.

"Can I help?" Tyler asked, shifting his eyes between them.

"Yes," Damon replied cheerfully, pushing himself away from the counter. "Don't block the door."

xxxdelenaxxx

"I'm-"

"Strong, beautiful, full of light. Caroline. I know," Freya said with a smile, her eyes glittering with the kind of controlled mischief Caroline thought she could relate too, even though Freya's words caught her completely off guard and for a while she could only stare at her in a rather dumbfounded way.

"There was a dire situation once that called for us to merge our minds for a few moments," Freya continued, glancing at Klaus who didn't seem to rejoice in the memory, which made it all the more interesting for Caroline to hear. "In other words, I had access to all of his thoughts and all of his memories for a few seconds," she added, smiling at Caroline and Liz.

"Yes and it'd be polite not to be using information obtained in such an improper way to my disadvantage on every occasion, dear sister," Klaus said wryly, pulling out a chair for Liz and handing the menu to Hope who quickly flipped through all the pages to get to the desserts section.

"I'd say I'm definitely using it to your advantage," Freya said with a shrug. "Thanks to that, I can tell Caroline that you're in love with her. I bet she didn't know that."

Liz raised her eyebrows, thinking that following Hope's example studying the menu was probably the best idea right now.

"She does now. Thank you," Klaus replied, unfazed.

"I did know that he was," Caroline said in a matching tone. "That he thought he was," she added in a slightly strained voice.

Klaus gave Caroline an amused, but also intent look, but she seemed determined not to meet his gaze.

"Are you getting married?" Hope asked, looking between Klaus and Caroline. "Damon's in love with Elena and Elena's in love with Damon and they're getting married."

"I wish we stopped talking about Damon and Elena all the time," Klaus said with a sigh, glancing at Hope with a smile.

"Why?" Hope demanded.

"I think the question that remains is whether you are in love with my brother?" Undeterred, Freya continued her train of thought, propping her chin on her hands and giving Caroline an inquiring look, her eyes still smiling.

"I'm quite certain we're getting sidetracked," Klaus said spreading his fingers on the table next to his glass, a smile on his face acquiring a hint of a warning that Freya seemed to ignore with ease. "The spell, if you'd be as kind. Have you recovered it?"

"I wouldn't be wasting your time if I haven't," Freya said matter-of-factly. "But before we do this, you have to be certain that's what you want," she said, shifting her gaze to Caroline, her expression becoming utterly serious.

"Are there any side effects to be considered?" Liz asked with a worried frown.

Freya gave her a small, reassuring smile. "Not side effects. But once he's put to sleep he won't wake up for a hundred years, no matter what. So if there are any spells of his in effect right now, they'll hold for the next century."

Liz and Klaus looked at Caroline who after a moment of consideration firmly shook her head.

"Kai's only spell that's in effect now is a spell we would never want to break," she said, looking at Liz with a warm smile.

Freya nodded. "Good. Then we can get to work."


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Thank you **SO MUCH** for all the amazing reviews! *hugs*

Feel free to consider this chapter a Holiday Special, if only because it's very, and I mean _VERY_ long. What happened is that I started writing it with a particular cliffhanger in mind, but then I realized that after this cliffhanger we wouldn't have time for some other scenes that I wanted to include, so having a choice of making this chapter loooooooooooong and postponing the cliffhanger I decided to go with the former. I hope you don't mind ;)

Speaking of Holiday Specials, **scarlett2112** posted a couple of amazing Christmas stories:  When You Wish Upon A Star, Blue Christmas and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. Also, don't hesitate to check out her other fantastic fics that are currently in-progress: Rainy Days and Mondays, Tears in Heaven and Angels Fall. There's beauty and wisdom in each of these stories.

As for other fandoms, **Willofthewisp** 's exquisite story Hearts and Monsters is going to make you forget all about the Once Upon a Time hiatus! It's an artistic and psychological treat.

 **Sleepy Lotus** ' With This Ring, or Fate Intervenes is another work-in-progress not to be missed, so if the word _Sparrabeth_ still makes your heart race, hurry up to read it. It's a brilliant story. And if you're already of fan, you'll be delighted to know that Sleepy Lotus has published an original fic! Search for  Cazadora by **Julia DeBarrioz** and make your kindle happy ;D

& Since this is the last chapter posted in 2015... **Happy New Year! Have your dreams come true in 2016! :]**

 **Chapter 18**

Elena zipped up her jacket and leaned against the car they had rented after Tyler had said he'd take care of everything. Unfortunately, he couldn't release the car they had been driving. Or gift them a police car, for that matter, as Damon had suggested.

Before heading to a hotel for the night. they stopped at a gas station near Durham. It was too late to go get the grimoire, since Isobel had said it was hidden in a place that was easier to access during the day. They had decided to trust her on that, despite the fact that she'd dodged John's as simple as obvious question " _why_ " more than once.

Looking up at the sky, Elena smiled at how it looked all black at first but after she blinked and her eyes adjusted to the sight, she could see thousands of tiny stars glimmering above her.

She still tried to figure out how she could make this trip work. There seemed to be so many unfinished stories between everyone and the circumstances were far from ideal to create the kind of atmosphere that could help everyone open up.

With a sigh, Elena turned her gaze away from the sky.

"Don't worry. They'll be fine. The worst they can do is buy junk food," Damon said, after a few moments of watching Elena, who seemed lost in thought looking toward the gas station store where Isobel, John, Lily and Desmond had gone. "And tons of scratchcards, now that I think about it," he added as an afterthought, squinting.

Elena pushed herself away from the car. She walked up to Damon who was standing a few steps away, filling up the gas tank.

"You might be one of not many people who trust their in-laws more than their parents when it comes to handing out credit cards," she said with a smile, placing her hands on Damon's shoulders and leaning into his embrace.

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing. And it's not working," Damon muttered into her hair, sliding his hand up her back.

Elena bit her lip, stifling a smile. "You know sooner or later you will have to talk to them."

"Or I can just ignore them forever."

"Not exactly forever."

"All the better."

Elena tilted her head backwards to look at Damon, her hands still anchored on his shoulders. "They are your parents. You should give them a chance. Especially Desmond. He seems to have been as surprised as you by all this. And Lily without her powers may just be in the mood to actually listen and realize she has a choice."

The expression on Damon's face seemed to grow simultaneously grim and hopeful. "Do you really think that's what this is about, Elena?" He asked after a pause, his eyes aimlessly scanning their dimly lit surroundings before returning to Elena's face. "That she thinks there's no going back to who she was?"

Elena nodded slowly. "I'd say I've seen this before," she said with a faint smile.

Damon groaned. "I don't want to hear how alike we are. If you start on that, I'm going to retaliate," he said, widening his eyes at Elena in a humorous warning.

He finished filling up the tank and put the nozzle away.

"Go ahead," Elena said in an amused tone, resuming her hold on him by wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Fine," Damon replied in a matching tone, narrowing his eyes at her. "You've got John's _I don't approve of you and I want you to know that I don't approve of you_ look."

Elena bit back a laugh. "I don't have a look like that!"

"Yes, you do. Want a list of occasions when you looked at me like that?"

"No, thank you. But you do realize you're just proving my point, right?" Elena asked with a smile, pressing a quick kiss to Damon's cheek and nuzzling it loudly for a second before drawing back.

Damon grinned back at her and tightening his embrace around her pushed her lips against his.

Warm wind whizzed through their hair tossing single raindrops against them. Elena's hands flew to Damon's face as they continued kissing, the kiss growing more heated until their lips parted for an inch to allow both of them to catch a breath.

"I forgot you told me it was your birthday," Damon whispered, his forehead falling against Elena's. "You told me that when I was under that spell, when we went to that town by the sea with Hope."

Elena's eyes widened for a second. "You're right. I completely forgot I already told you about it. I kept forgetting to tell you and when I finally did, I forgot I did."

They both smiled when another gust of wind brought more rain to drop over them.

"I don't know why I forgot," Damon muttered with a pensive frown, the incident suddenly becoming more odd to him than it probably was.

"It doesn't matter. I forgot too. I forgot I told you," Elena said reassuringly. "So much happened in the last few days."

Now that Damon mentioned it she couldn't remember that night and his words more clearly. He had told her that the first time he'd realized he loved her was when they had been keeping watch throughout the night following their first dance. Just the two of them alone in the dark. She wished she could go back to that moment, look into his eyes and see what she knew now.

Damon lifted his hand to brush a few strands of hair off Elena's forehead. "Maybe you're right."

"I'm usually right," Elena said with a smile. "Besides," she said, slowly wrapping her arms around Damon's neck. "One day we'll be very old and we may start losing our memories, but it's going to be OK as long as-"

"They don't get altered?" Damon offered, smirking.

"I was going to say: as long as we love each other," Elena said, narrowing her eyes at him and kissing him back when his lips touched hers.

xxxdelenaxxx

After leaving the room where Liz and Freya, to Caroline's bewilderment, were talking about the newest traffic regulations, Caroline made a side trip on her way to the kitchen to peer into the bedroom where Klaus was reading a story to Hope.

It was weird enough to imagine such a scene, but seeing it with her own eyes made Caroline feel even weirder. She couldn't really pinpoint the exact reason why, although she had a feeling it had little to do with Klaus' ability to make every dwarf's voice sound different and more to do with the fact that it was all happening at her house.

"We just finished the story," Klaus said, standing up and Caroline squeezed her eyes shut.

Of course he'd sense her presence by the door.

"Freya said we should leave in ten minutes," Caroline said, stepping from behind the door and taking a couple of steps into the room. "Just wanted to tell you," she added a little stiffly, smiling at Hope who was smiling at her, but only until the meaning of Caroline's words registered with her.

"Dad, why can't I go too? Aunt Freya could teach me how to put spells on villains!" Hope argued, sitting up in her bed and looking very in sync with the room, Caroline thought, flowery wallpaper and ruffled pillows making for a perfect room for a little girl.

She quickly pushed the thought away.

"That could come in handy one day indeed," Klaus agreed stoically, with the calmness of someone who was going to have the last word anyway. "But today is not the day to start with such lessons."

"Why not?" Hope asked with a pout. "I'm not scared of Kai!"

Klaus opened his mouth to reply, but Caroline was quicker.

"Of course not," she said with a shrug, walking past Klaus and toward the bed, feeling his gaze on her, but not looking back at him. "But my mom actually is." Caroline sat on the edge of the bed and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper to secure Hope's attention. "And someone needs to stay in the house with her. Could you do it for me?"

Hope looked a little conflicted, but also determined not to show that she was conflicted. With a barely perceptible sigh she nodded.

xxxdelenaxxx

"OK, but we can only take one of these," Damon said, pointing to three bags of almonds in John's hands. "Kidding," he added after losing hope that John would arrive at the conclusion unaided, the look in his eyes thoroughly unamused.

Glancing around the store, Damon met Elena's gaze and followed it toward where Lily and Desmond were. They looked a little lost between the aisles.

"So You and Damon."

Elena's eyes darted to Isobel, who was standing next to her, picking cold beverages from the fridge.

"Yes," Elena replied, inwardly scolding herself for being so awkward herself while pressuring Damon into talking to his parents all the time.

"Kind of called it," Isobel said in that nonchalant tone of voice that had terrified Elena the first time they had met, but now it didn't sound frightening anymore and she wondered if it was because she'd gone through so much since then or perhaps because there really was something different about Isobel now. "Bragging always makes for a good conversation starter."

"I remember." Elena smiled a little. "How did you know? I mean... why did you say it back then?"

Isobel closed the fridge, her lips twitching in a brief grimace on the verge of a smile. "I just thought you were very similar."

Elena gave her a surprised look. "But you didn't know what kind of person I was. You didn't know me back then at all," she said, half-considering taking her words back, because spoken out loud they seemed rather harsh, regardless of how true they were.

"I might not know exactly who you were, but I knew exactly who you were not," Isobel replied, shifting her eyes from the groceries to Elena who held her breath, proximity making the intensity of Isobel's gaze suddenly intimidating.

But she quickly reminded herself that there was no reason to feel that way, because she was hoping for a new start and in order for that to work out she couldn't hold grudges or be afraid. She needed to let Isobel in.

"But you liked her better," Elena blurted out in a low voice, absentmindedly reaching out for something on the nearby shelf.

"I didn't like her," Isobel replied in a toneless voice that acquired a hint of unexpected warmth when she added. "I liked looking at her."

Elena froze, the meaning of Isobel's words washing over her like a wave of cleansing relief she didn't know she'd been waiting for.

"And I also thought," Isobel continued in what seemed to be an effort to spare Elena the necessity to react to her words, "that maybe if you were a little like me-"

"Are we going to need flashlights?" John asked, unceremoniously interrupting the conversation, two flashlights already in his hands.

Pressing the button, he turned one of them on to check if it was working.

"Sure. And a backhoe loader," Isobel answered with a completely straight face, so even when John looked up at her he didn't know right away if she was joking or not.

"I really hate these pointless, sarcastic replies," John said with a sigh.

"So... how have you met?" Elena quickly asked in the most casual tone she could muster, hoping to prevent an argument from happening.

Sliding her hands into her jacket's pockets, she looked between Isobel and John.

"At a party. I was drunk," Isobel replied immediately, receiving an equally immediate glare from John.

"No," he said with a grimace of indignation at such a retelling of events. "You weren't drunk. And it wasn't at a party," he added, only then noticing a slightly amused expression on Isobel's face. He rolled his eyes. "We met in a bookstore," he said after a pause, clearing his throat and turning his gaze to Elena. "I thought she lost consciousness, because she was lying on the floor in the archeology section."

"I wasn't lying on the floor. I was squatting down, because I was looking for a particular book. And you stepped on me."

"I didn't step on you," John protested. "I tripped over you and broke my nose."

Elena's eyes widened and she laughed a little, looking between Isobel and John with a smile, surprised how much she was enjoying the story, how much she wanted to hear more of it.

"He said I'd have to pay for his nose surgery if I didn't go out with him. Would you believe I actually bought it?"

"You didn't buy it."

John tried very hard to retain a frown on his face, but Elena noticed a bittersweet smile flickering across his face and for a second she tried to imagine what their lives would've been like if they hadn't drifted apart, if everything had worked out differently.

"How do you know I didn't?" Isobel asked, raising her eyebrow.

"If you thought I was being serious you would've punched me. And then no nose surgery would've been necessary, because there would've been no nose."

Elena looked at Isobel whose small smirk grew pensive.

"But unfortunately a surgery was necessary and that's how far back your brother's dislike of me can be dated."

John snorted mirthlessly, but the fleeting hurt look in Isobel's eyes was enough to draw Elena's attention.

"What do you mean?" She asked, remembering a few hostile glances Isobel and Grayson exchanged in the boarding house.

"She's exaggerating," John said dismissively.

Isobel looked at him and even if a second ago she'd had no intention of talking about it, the tone of John's voice seemed to aggravate her enough to trigger a confession that caught Elena off guard.

"I wanted to keep you, but Grayson said that they would take you away from me anyway. That I had no chance, that they would destroy me. I was fifteen. I was afraid of too many things."

She held Elena's stunned gaze for a second before walking off, not noticing a frown of astonishment on John's face as well.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Three more years and this trick's not going to work," Klaus said after they'd closed the door to Hope's room, assuring her that Liz would feel safer with her in the house even if they both fell asleep.

"But right now it is working, so let's take advantage of that," Caroline said, eyeing her old storybook that Klaus was still holding in his hands.

"I was meaning to ask, what did you do to it?" He raised his eyebrows while showing all of the ripped pages to her.

Caroline bit her lip to hide a smile. "I was tearing out the pages with the dresses I liked best," she replied, thrusting up her chin.

Klaus' eyes lit up in amusement.

"What's so funny?" Caroline asked, crossing her arms over her chest, her voice acquiring a hint of annoyance.

"It just sounds like something you would do," Klaus said, pursing his lips a little, a smirk flickering across his face.

"I'm not sure that was a compliment," Caroline retorted sternly.

"It was. Like everything I ever thought and will ever think of you," Klaus replied, holding her gaze for a moment before turning around and heading back into the living room.

Caroline was standing motionlessly in the corridor for a few more seconds, before she followed, slowly, step by step, hoping to regain her composure before entering the room.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Do you like fishing?" Desmond asked conversationally and it must've been the first time Damon started feeling sorry for him.

He shifted his eyes and his entire posture toward him and looked Desmond up and down. He also glanced at the fishing rods behind them and came to the conclusion that the question was sincere.

Having reconsidered a sarcastic answer, Damon decided to settle on something simple. "No."

"But you've tried fishing?"

"No."

"Not once?"

"No."

"Not even on a camping trip?"

Damon blinked quickly, but catching the sight of Elena in the other side of the store reminded him that he was supposed to make an effort.

"I've never been on a camping trip."

There. A whole sentence must've counted as an effort. Damon looked toward the shelf in front of him again, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Desmond's mouth twitch, as if he'd just realized that and why his question was rather absurd.

"That Grimoire of Antecedents. I've never heard of it. Are you sure that woman isn't lying?" Lily asked matter-of-factly, obviously getting a little irritated by spending so much time in a store on a gas station, on a trip that didn't concern her.

"I'm not," Isobel said, grabbing a chocolate bar from a shelf next to Lily whose eyes darted to her.

"I was just wondering," Lily said stiffly, holding Isobel's gaze without blinking.

"I get that," Isobel said lightly. "Nice attempts at bonding, but I'd turn for some help if I were you," she whispered to Desmond on her way toward the register.

xxxdelenaxxx

Sarah woke up to someone singing quietly off tune in a voice she quickly recognized, so without opening her eyes, she pressed her cheek against the couch and listened to the song in silence for a few more minutes.

She could hear her parents steady breathing. They must've also fallen asleep on the couch next to her. Kai was apparently also asleep and snoring on the floor. A movie was over and only the menu screen kept flickering.

"Do you know that vampires, including witchpires, can tell when someone is only pretending to be asleep?" Enzo asked and Sarah snorted to herself before lifting her head.

"What song was that?" She asked drowsily, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I made it up."

"Sounded like you did."

Enzo smiled, his smile widening when Sarah quickly stood up and walked toward him.

But just when he was about to move to make room for her next to him, she walked past him.

With a confused frown Enzo propped himself on his elbow to look behind his armchair.

"Great," he muttered at the sight of Stefan who was apparently motioning for Sarah and him to come into the corridor.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I'll sit in the back with Lily and Desmond will sit here," Elena explained in a perfectly casual tone, giving Desmond a reassuring look and Damon a smile before turning on her heels.

She kind of hoped the change of seats would go over smoothly, but she wasn't exactly surprised when it didn't.

"Whoa, whoa, wait, what?!" Damon swiftly grabbed Elena by the waist and pulled her into his arms, her back colliding with his chest. "Elena, what are you doing?" He asked in a disproportionately dramatic tone.

Shaking her with a soundless laugh, Elena turned around in Damon's arms. "I'm not moving to New Zealand. I'm just going to be sitting in the back of the car for the next half an hour."

"Why?"

Motioning for Desmond to get into the car without worrying about it, Elena tilted her head to the side and raised her eyebrows in an amused expression. Damon rolled his eyes, but despite a predominant hint of exasperation, he also looked a little miserable, so Elena decided to offer him a way out, if only a potential one.

She stepped on her tiptoes and inching her lips to his said very quietly.

"I'll go back to my seat next to you earlier if you guess what baby name I came up with."

Damon started to smile, but quickly realized the task wasn't as easy as it seemed. His mind was simultaneously flooded with names while at the same time he couldn't come up with a single one that appeared plausible enough.

"I need hints," he muttered a little grumpily.

Elena smiled. "It's a boy name, it starts with a ' _D_ ' and... here is the hint number three," she said and then pressed her lips to his in an ardent kiss.

Rather happy with that last hint and feeling optimistic, Damon called his own name after her, but Elena only glanced at him over her shoulder with a laugh.

"It's not a name of anyone we know," she said, climbing into the car and onto the seat next to Lily who regarded her coolly.

With a frown, Damon got into the driver's seat, avoiding Desmond's gaze. He started the engine and then looked toward the back of the car.

"It's a French name," he tried, but Elena shook her head with a snort.

"Daniel? Derek? Drake?"

John listened to the exchange in confusion, but since Isobel seemed amused, he decided not to comment on it.

Elena propped her head on her elbow. "Are you going to waste the entire ride to the hotel trying to guess correctly?"

"It was your idea in the first place," Damon protested, maneuvering the car out of the gas station and onto the road.

"Why can't we go get that grimoire right away?" John asked yet again. The sooner they'd find that book, the sooner the trip would be over.

"Because it's late," Isobel said in a bored tone. "And I'm tired."

"Why can't you at least tell us where it is?" John insisted.

"Dexter? Dominic?" Damon continued, apparently determined not to get engaged into a conversation with Desmond, despite this obviously being the point of the seat switch.

"I have to say I'm tired as well," Lily said and Isobel gave John an indifferently triumphant look.

He leaned his head against the headrest with a sigh. "What hotel are we going to?"

"Dorian? Dylan?" Damon paused and then asked with disbelief. "Dwayne?"

"You didn't pay any attention to the most important hint," Elena replied, her eyes laughing.

"Yes, I did. It just wasn't a very good hint."

She widened her eyes at him in mock indignation.

"I mean it wasn't a very _helpful_ hint," Damon corrected himself, glancing into the rear view mirror and giving Elena a lop-sided smile.

"It was a very helpful hint," Elena said with unwavering conviction in her voice.

"Daryl? David?" Damon continued trying, after going through some etymological implications in his mind.

"Maybe it's a place where you first kissed?" Desmond offered in a low voice.

For a few seconds the car was completely silent, except for John compulsively turning his flashlight on and off. But just when Desmond started thinking it was a bad idea to speak up, the conversation was resumed.

"But it doesn't start with a ' _D_.' And it sounds more like a girl name," Damon muttered, confused.

Elena grimaced in bafflement. "What sounds more like a girl name?"

"Porch."

There was a moment of silence and then Elena, Isobel and Desmond laughed. Damon's frown deepened, because he wasn't trying to tell a joke.

"You wouldn't seriously name your daughter _Porch_?" Elena asked, still chuckling.

"I wouldn't. Would you?"

"No!"

Looking at the red light and waiting for it to turn green something suddenly clicked in Damon's mind and he closed his eyes for a second, biting back a laugh.

"Oh, I get it," he said, hit by the realization. "I know what it is."

Desmond was about to ask if it meant they should switch back the seats, but the reason for the guessing game somehow seemed to get lost.

"How did you guess that?"

The question was asked in a casual tone and it took Desmond a moment to realize he was the addressee. His head snapped into Damon's direction so fast as if he was afraid he might lose the chance to continue the conversation and Damon found the reaction both strange and unfamiliar, but not in an unpleasant way.

"The hint made it rather obvious," Desmond said with a shrug. "So what's the name?"

"It's Denver," Elena replied, glancing out of the window with a smile.

"If we're still going to Durham, we missed our exit," John pointed out in a dry tone, also looking out of the window.

Making sure no cars were coming from both directions, Damon turned the car around.

Squinting, he realized that he'd missed the sign because something funny was happening with his eyesight. Either he was more tired than he thought he was or perhaps as a human he was going to end up wearing contact lenses, which wasn't probably as inconvenient as losing the ability to use compulsion, but still seemed like a superfluous nuisance.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Are they absolutely certain this is going to work?" Sarah asked, biting her lip.

"Yes, Caroline said that Klaus' sister was under the same spell and she knows everything about it," Stefan said under his breath, shifting his eyes between Sarah and Enzo. "All they need are the right ingredients and sunlight. The spell can be performed at dawn. We just have to get Kai to go near the windows or outside, which shouldn't be too hard."

"It sounds too easy," Enzo murmured flatly.

Stefan gave him a stern look. "They have no reason to lie to us."

"That's not what I meant. Something _is_ going to go wrong, just wait and see."

"That's really helpful, thank you," Stefan said wryly.

Enzo rolled his eyes.

xxxdelenaxxx

Despite almost everybody claiming to be tired, to John's chagrin upon their arrival at the hotel and after getting the room keys, he had to follow everyone to the hotel bar where the sense of exhaustion seemed to wear off and soon Damon and Elena were dancing, Isobel was teaching Desmond some modern dancing steps and Lily was studying the interiors with attention worthy of a better cause.

"From what I heard you died of consumption," John said, looking at Lily who seemed to only after a moment realize that he was talking to her.

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe we know each other well enough to talk about such things."

"Whether we know each other or not, apparently, we're going to be a family, so birthdays and... deathdates seem to be the basic facts we should have covered," John retorted, thinking that bourbon must truly be a magical drink if it was inspiring him to strike a conversation with someone who looked like she wanted to deal everyone a deadly glare.

Not to mention someone who wanted to kill Elena, John suddenly remembered.

"Why did you try to kill my daughter?"

Lily looked John up and down, apparently considering his tone of voice not to be perfectly in sync with the question.

"If that makes you feel any better, I just wanted to hurt my son," she retorted, taking the tiny umbrella out of her drink and twisting it between her fingers.

"Somehow that makes it even more disturbing," John muttered, realizing that the headache must've been caused by the fact that for the first time in his life, or, lives, he was getting drunk.

"Really? Someone mentioned you were trying to kill him too."

"But..." John motioned for the barman, who seemed very amused by the conversation, to pour him another drink. "He isn't my son. And I tried to kill him for entirely valid reasons."

"Look at you two, bonding," Isobel said with a slow smile, sliding onto a chair in between Lily and John. "What is that?" She asked, pointing to Lily's drink.

"I don't know," Lily replied succinctly, putting the umbrella back into the glass. "Elena ordered it for me," she added after a pause in a lower voice.

"Then it's not poisoned," Isobel said with a small smirk. "May I have one too, please?" She said, addressing the barman.

With a nod, he prepared the drink and placing it in front of Isobel, said with a meaningful glance at both Lily and John. "But I think they've had enough."

Isobel raised her glass. "Noted. Thanks."

xxxdelenaxxx

"I don't know what else to tell you," Grayson said, holding his head in his hands, his eyes darting back and forth between his wife and his son.

"I had no idea," Miranda whispered, her lips barely moving.

"That's both good and a little worrisome, I guess," Jeremy pointed out, standing with his back against the opposite wall, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Don't blame your mother. I made sure she didn't know anything about what I was doing at Whitmore."

"I'm not blaming her. I'm just pointing out that she didn't know you as well as she thought she did. Which is obviously worrisome, seeing how you were, are married," Jeremy explained in slightly haughty voice, regarding them both with tired eyes.

He wasn't sure how to explain the fact that the conversation started wearing him out half way through, as if he couldn't remember why it was even important to talk about all this. He knew he should be upset, but at the same time he wasn't sure if he was upset, although determining why he was feeling so indifferent didn't seem to be an easy task. He suspected everything from the time that had passed, through his own questionable choices and actions, up to...

Up to being so incredibly, breathlessly happy they were alive, Jeremy thought, gritting his teeth. A part of him just wanted to cry, scream, tell them how much he and Elena had missed them, how much they'd grieved them, how, for a very long time, it had felt like they had died with them in that accident.

"I'm sure your father regrets his actions now," Miranda said, looking at Grayson with a mixture of hurt and hope in her eyes.

Jeremy drew a breath. But there was also another part of him. A part that had watched too many people he loved die. A part that had died too many times. A part that had survived what had seemed unimaginable to survive. He felt that this part of him could forgive anything. But it didn't have to.

"I regretted them back then already," Grayson replied rapidly and Miranda felt at least some of the weight lift off her shoulders. "But I was too far gone, too involved with too many people. I couldn't just stop. It wasn't the kind of organization you could quit. Once I became a part of it, there was no way out."

"Really? So how does that fit into what you were always telling me? That there was always a way out of every bad situation?" Jeremy asked, his eyes fixed on Grayson.

"Because that's true. Because that's what I wanted to teach you. That's what I wanted for you. I would've never let you make my wrong choices."

Jeremy barked a derisive laugh, but Miranda's heart clenched at the flash of tears in Jeremy's eyes.

"I made a ton of worse choices," Jeremy said, pushing himself away from the wall and Miranda already started reaching out toward him to stop him from leaving the room. "I just thought you didn't. I thought you wouldn't. I wanted to think you were better. I needed to know it was possible to be better. But I guess it isn't," he said, grabbing the doorknob.

"It is possible."

Grayson's voice reached him at the same time Miranda's gentle touch on his shoulder did.

"As long as you want to."

xxxdelenaxxx

With a resigned expression on his face, Damon sat at a table in the corner, glancing at Desmond who had straightened up when Damon and Elena had approached.

"I negotiated half an hour," Elena said with a complacent smile, stepping behind Damon's chair and pressing her hands onto his shoulders when he pretended trying to get up.

"I'm pretty sure that was more a case of blackmail rather than one of negotiation," Damon muttered when he felt Elena briefly prop her chin on the top of his head.

She brushed an odd, silver thread off his hair and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"Either way, you're hardly going to have a reason to complain," she whispered with a brief chuckle.

"Unless I get up before the half an hour is over."

"Yes, unless that," Elena confirmed with a laugh before walking off, not without spending an extra half a minute trying to free her hand from Damon's grasp.

Damon followed her with his gaze, a faint smile on his face slowly turning into a defensive frown.

He clasped his hands together on the table in front of him and raised his eyes to meet Desmond's gaze.

"I honestly think this is pointless. But for some reason Elena, or rather for the reason of Elena being Elena, she decided that we should talk, so..." Damon trailed off and shrugged.

"I can't stop thinking about where I was, what I was doing when that picture was taken."

Desmond's voice was so quiet that Damon's forehead instinctively wrinkled in intensified concentration to make out the words. He shifted his unfocused gaze to Desmond, who for a change was looking straight at the candle between them.

"So many days. So many hours. So many minutes and every minute is like a deep, sharp cut that I can't heal. I know that." Desmond looked up and it was too dark in the bar to see anything too clearly, but the faint light was enough to recognize a glimmer of tears. "I'm so sorry. I know asking inconsequential questions and talking about trivial things, or even apologizing won't change the past, but... I was told Lilian died and... and maybe I should've verified that information, but at that time it didn't even cross my mind that someone could lie about something like that. Lilian was told the same thing about me. I know this doesn't change anything-"

"It does."

Desmond blinked and stopped in mid-sentence, looking up at Damon, half-wondering he'd just imagined the barely audible interruption.

"I mean it doesn't change the past, but..." Damon continued, squinting. "It makes it matter a little less," he added after a moment of consideration, speaking the words very slowly.

"I'm not sure-" Desmond started hesitatingly.

"There's a difference between being hated by your father and being hated by a random guy with a bad haircut."

It was hard to infere much from Damon's tone, but his words breathed some unexpected hope into Desmond.

"That's not enough. I want to make up for my absence. I want to get to know you. I want to be someone you want to know. I don't want to disappoint you," he added and hoped that a fleeting, stunned, pensive smile that flickered across Damon's mouth was a good sign.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I thought everyone's disappeared," Kai said with a chuckle, stretching out his arms and yawning.

"We're having breakfast outside," Bonnie said offhandedly on her way across the room.

"That's fine with me," Kai said, following Bonnie, but stopping abruptly in his tracks when right outside the door he felt a strange wave of rippling air hit him.

His eyes widened, but before he managed to do anything, each word of incantation seemed to rip through him like a barbed knife and it felt like he was being dragged under the black, thick layer of water, black sand filling up his lungs, his ears, his eyes, black fire coursing through his veins, his heartbreat slowing down, beat by beat, slower and slower until all his thoughts dispersed into suffocating nothingness.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Damon!..." Elena exclaimed in indignation, stifling a smile when Damon swept her into his arms half-way through her happy assessment of the evening having gone really well, although she still wasn't sure that leaving Isobel, Lily and Desmond alone in the hotel bar was a good idea...

"What? I completely agree with you," Damon said, pretending to misinterpret the tone of Elena's voice.

He closed the door with his foot and lowered Elena on a nearby cabinet, taking off her shoes and throwing them over his shoulders.

"Tonight was a smashing success," he said, taking off his jacket and smiling at how closely Elena was watching him. "Thanks to you," he said, helping Elena to wiggle her hands out of her jacket and then cupping her cheeks in his palms and kissing her passionately on the mouth.

"Did Desmond tell you what happened? Why-"

Damon made a groaning noise against Elena's throat and she chuckled.

"Do we have to talk about this right now?" Damon asked, lifting his head to look at her. "I talked to him like you asked me to do. I think I deserve a reward for that alone. And actually, I deserve an enhanced award, since I didn't kill Lily."

Elena grazed Damon's face with her fingertips. "I'm not quite sure there's a way to enhance this particular reward," she said with a smile.

Damon smirked. "Oh, there are _plenty_ of ways, don't you worry."

Snickering under her breath, Elena ran her fingers through his hair and across his back when Damon trailed soft kisses across her neck.

"I think everything's going to be alright," Elena said a little dreamily, looking across the room toward the window, hundreds of lights glimmering outside.

Damon drew back and narrowed his eyes at her. "I'm sorry, am I boring you?"

Elena pressed her lips to his and laughed a little. "I just really liked today," she whispered, still running her fingers through Damon's hair. "I've never thought a day like that could happen. We're here with my parents and your parents and I know that my... other parents are back home and I'm going to see them. I know we still have to deal with Kai, but somehow I just have this feeling that everything's going to be alright anyway."

Damon outlined the contour of her face with his fingertips and returned her smile, tangling his fingers into her hair. "Today was good," he allowed. "But it was good because of you."

Elena shook her head and slid off the cabinet. Clutching Damon's shoulders, sheslowly pushed him backwards toward the bed. "It was good because everyone made an effort."

"Really," Damon gave her a dubious look and smiled up at her when Elena made him fall onto the bed and climbed on top of him. "What effort did Lily make? Because I must've missed it."

He wrapped his arms around Elena when she rested her head on his shoulder.

"While you were talking to Desmond, she was having a very polite conversation with Isobel and John and when I joined them, she talked to me about shopping."

"Shopping."

"Yes. She said that at the beginning she had problems finding her way around the stores and finding the clothes she liked," Elena said, placing her open palm on Damon's chest.

" _Elena_ , you're making that up."

"I'm not!"

Damon leaned his cheek against the top her head. "Right. So she said it after how many drinks?"

"I don't think she actually drank anything and after some time she also started asking questions. It was John who drank a bit too much."

"I know," Damon muttered and Elena stifled a smile at the memory of Damon half-carrying John to his room since he couldn't walk all by himself.

They had put him to bed and Isobel had written him a note that they'd left on his night stand: _"No, it wasn't all just a bad dream. Call room #590 when you wake up."_

"So what did Lily ask you about?" Damon asked, twirling dark strands of Elena's hair around his fingers.

Elena was quiet for a second. "She asked how we broke the no-love spell," she said after a pause.

Damon snorted mirthlessly. "Small talk at its best. No-love spell. Is that the technical name?"

"I think it's good that she even mentioned it."

"I'm sure she had a reason. Probably a sinister one that is going to multiply our problems in the future."

Elena lifted her head and shifted her position to look up at Damon, her chin propped on her hands clasped over Damon's chest.

"I think she's feeling bad about what she did," Elena said with a small, warm smile but then frowned in half-hearted annoyance when Damon's mouth twitched into a smirk. "I'm serious. Maybe losing her friends made her look at everything differently. She is acting a little different. You must've noticed."

"It doesn't mean anything. Besides, she isn't acting differently. Just being kind of numb, which proves nothing. She might just as well be plotting the world's end as we speak."

"I don't think so. I think she's talking with Desmond. Speaking of, what did you talk about?"

"What did you and Isobel talk about?"

Elena grabbed a pillow and playfully smacked Damon over the shoulder with it. "Stop deflecting."

"I'm not," Damon protested, snatching the pillow out of Elena's hands and thwarting her when she tried to scoot toward the headboard to grab another one. "I'm just eally more interested in your conversations."

Trapping Elena underneath him, Damon smiled down at her. Elena's hands flew to his shoulders, slid up onto his cheeks, held his face close caressing it when, very tenderly, he kissed her.

Without breaking the kiss, they rolled onto their sides to lie down facing each other.

For a longer while they remained quiet in a warm embrace, their faces, their eyes wandering between each other's faces and their intertwined hands.

"He said he was away for a few days and when he returned my mother's parents told him she had died," Damon spoke in a low voice and Elena listened to him in silence, scenes he was describing playing out in her imagination, every word making it easier to let go of any grudges and give everyone a second chance. "But the truth was they sent her away after telling her that he had died. When she came back, he was already gone. Her parents arranged for a quick marriage with a more suitable and conveniently infatuated candidate who seemed happy and polite all the way until he realized he'd been used as a cover-up for my mother's indiscretion. And that she didn't love him. The rest of the story you already know."

"Do you?"

Damon's eyes drifted to her and Elena smiled brokenly

"Giuseppe didn't hate you. He hated not being loved," she said softly, squeezing Damon's hand in hers. "Lily never healed, so when she became a vampire she welcomed the possibility of not feeling the pai anymore, even if it meant not feeling anything. That's why she never looked back."

"Are you sure about medicine? Because becoming an attorney is definitely an option," Damon said, squinting, but then he nodded and gave Elena a pensive smile.

She leaned in to kiss him.

"Do you remember our late night talks?" Elena asked, deciding to change the mood. She placed her elbow under her cheek and brushed her fingertips across Damon's lips. "When you would show up in my room in the middle of the night?"

A glimpse of a mischievous smile flickered in Damon's eyes. "I remember you wouldn't let me do anything else but talk."

Elena stifled a laugh. "You never tried to do anything else."

"Right. Because I can imagine how well it'd all go if instead of discussing the strategy I would've started doing this," he said, catching Elena off guard by sliding his hand up her leg and under her dress and ducking his head to nuzzle her neck, pretending to bite her.

Laughing, Elena cupped the sides of his face and kissed him on the mouth. "I liked talking to you. I liked seeing you," she said with a smile, pulling Damon's head down for another kiss before continuing. "Do you think... Do you think everything would've been easier if we met as humans?" She bit her lip, drifting in her thoughts for a second.

"All I know is that in any realm, under any circumstances, every road would always lead me to you," Damon said under his breath, grazing Elena's cheek with the backs of his fingers.

Elena smiled.

They hugged and kissed between whispered words floating between them like grains of light, their hands colliding on their way to remove the remaining pieces of clothing, bare skin burning under the gentle touch of trembling fingers traveling endless, crisscrossing paths adorned by unhurried, lingering kisses.

Damon's open palms were pressing against Elena's back, bringing her as close to him as possible, her body molding into his, their mouths inseparable.

She smiled inwardly, a smile on the verge of tears at the thought that it was the same feeling. A conversation, a dance, a kiss. It was the same feeling all along, every time they would look at each other. Love. Like an invisible thread connecting all the pieces, making them meaninful, making them whole. Even before it had a name, before either of them knew what it was.

With his outstretched fingers Damon brushed Elena's hair off her shoulder and lowered his mouth to press soft kisses across her skin.

It was so simple and yet forever a mystery all the same. That they might just have one lifetime ahead of them, but every moment in each other's arms would always be as beautiful and as everlasting as eternity.

xxxdelenaxxx

"And you're telling us about it now?" Bonnie exclaimed in disbelief, widening her eyes at Caroline.

"I'm sorry, but if everyone started telling everyone about it in the middle of the night, this could kind of alert Kai that we were up to something, don't you think?" Caroline said with a huff.

"So you decided to tell Stefan, Enzo and Sarah, but not us?" Bonnie insisted in the same tone, glancing at her grandmother who were standing next to her. "Because a magical spell couldn't possibly be of any interest to the only witches here!"

Enzo cleared his throat. "I'm still a witchpire, in case you... forgot?"

"This is not funny," Bonnie said sharply, countering his smirk with a glare.

"Freya is a witch too," Caroline said, gesturing to Freya and Klaus who didn't seem very worried about a little argument that followed up putting the sleeping spell over Kai.

"Strong enough to enact this kind of spell?"

"Well," Caroline shifted her eyes to Kai who looked very much asleep, his entire form as motionless as a statue, even his features bearing more resemblance to a sculpture than a living being.

"With all due respect, it's a spell older than all of us here together," Freya observed in a calm, confident tone. "Its strength does't depend on the person who enacts it. The spell is strong in itself. I swear to you that it's going to work." Her mouth quirked into a brief, sad smile. "I have my life to prove it. It's a spell you can't break. No matter how much power he still has, he won't be able to break it."

"But he's not dead, so everyone he brought back is here to stay," Caroline said with a smile, looking back at Bonnie with a pleading grimace. "There's no reason to argue. Everything's fine."

The grim expression on Bonnie's face remained unchanged, but her stance seemed to relax a bit. She turned her head and looked at Kai.

"What about the Grimoire of Antecedents?" She asked in a low voice.

Caroline frowned and shrugged. "What about it? We don't need it anymore."

Bonnie's eyes darted to her. "He wanted that grimoire, Caroline. He wanted it very much. Have you even called Damon and Elena to tell them what was going on or at least check up on them? Why do you think Kai was so certain they'd promptly come back?"

"Bonnie, what are you saying?" Stefan asked with a frown, struck by the memory of Kai's words that Bonnie was about to recall.

"He kept making these stupid jokes about time," Bonnie said, looking between everyone. "Did anyone bother to make sure he didn't put any spells on anyone before you decided to freeze him for the next hundred of years?"

"Oh, come on," Caroline said impatiently. "What kind of spell he could've put at anyone? A spell to make people drive faster? Read faster? He knew they'd be back, because he knew they'd be worried about us here, stuck with him. That's all there's to it."

"Having said that, perhaps we should call them," Enzo offered after a moment of silence, giving Caroline a quick smile when she narrowed her eyes at him.

xxxdelenaxxx

Damon woke up with a terrible headache.

In fact, every muscle in his body hurt and he laughed soundlessly, not waking Elena up to humorously blame her for this only because he noticed that it was 3am. The red digits on the clock were blinking lazily in the darkness and Damon rubbed his eyes, wondering why he was seeing the room as if he was looking at it through a vile of mist.

Glancing over at Elena who was sound asleep, he pressed a soft kiss to her shoulder and pushed the bed cover off him to slide off the bed and stand up.

For some reason his legs felt incredibly heavy, to the point where he found it difficult to walk.

It crossed Damon's mind that something was wrong, something else than just some as casual as unexpected sense of fatigue falling over him. The thought crossed his mind a moment before he turned on the lights in the bathroom. Without looking up he gathered a few handfuls of water and splashed it over his face.

He paused. The texture under his fingertips felt odd, like a parched piece of paper, thin and dry and wrinkled...

The water was still running, the monotone sound muffled, as if his hearing was also playing tricks on him in addition to other things.

Slowly, Damon straightened up to look in the mirror.

He blinked.

The person who was looking back at him, the person in the mirror was him and yet it wasn't.

His hair was completely gray, almost white and his face looked like he'd imagine the face of his eighty-year-old human self to look like.

He was... _old_.


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Thank you so so so so so so so muchfor your beautiful reviews! :]

I heard that "Delena Reunion" was trending on twitter the other day, so here's to hoping that it will really happen this year. May 2016 be a happy year for Damon & Elena and for all of us :)

 **Chapter 19**

"Damon?"

Elena knocked on the bathroom door for the seventh time, merely perplexed at first, but a few minutes later really worried.

She'd noticed the light under the door when she'd woken up and she'd heard the water running for a few seconds, but then more and more minutes had passed and Damon still hadn't walked out of there. And now he wasn't even answering the door.

With a frown, Elena raised her hand to knock once again, but then the door opened and Damon walked out of the bathroom wrapped in at least three towels covering him from head to toe, including a towel thrown over his head in such a way that not even his face was visible.

Elena looked after him quizzically. "Damon, is everything alright?" She asked uncertainly, tiptoeing after him and watching him sit on the edge of the bed.

"Far from it," he replied at last, his voice muffled by the towel.

Elena stopped in front of him, trying to guess what could possibly be wrong, but she couldn't come up with anything, half-hoping it was all a joke of some sort, even though the tone of Damon's voice seemed to clearly suggest otherwise.

"Do you mind taking this off your face?" She asked softly with a tentative smile, slowly reaching out and carefully sliding the towel off Damon's face.

She wasn't sure what she'd expected to see, but even though the sight in itself wasn't terrifying, all of its obvious implications that immediately hit her made her eyes widen. She dropped the towel with a gasp.

"Damon! What happened?" Elena cupped his face in her hands and made him look at her.

Damon shook his head. "I don't know, Elena. I woke up and... it already was like this," he said with a frown, his gray eyebrows knitting together.

Elena's eyes were wandering all over his face with tender anxiety. "It must be some kind of a spell..." She straightened up. "It's Kai! It must be him. He must've done something. He wanted us to come back quickly. Maybe that's his way of making us hurry up. He must've put a spell over you that made you... made you age to your actual age, maybe?" Elena concluded with a huff.

It was a somewhat comforting conclusion, she decided, since the spell must be reversible. They'd just have to _really_ hurry up with retrieving the grimoire and going back to Mystic Falls, so Kai could revoke the spell.

"I look eighty at most," Damon protested, Elena's more combative than despairing attitude cheering him up a little. "Definitely not a hundred and eighty just yet."

Elena's frown turned into a faint smile. She sat on the bed next to Damon, draped her arm over his shoulders and kissed him on his wrinkled cheek.

"I'd love you even if you looked five hundred and eighty," she said, running her hand through his gray hair. "And this color actually looks good on you."

Damon returned her smile and opened his mouth to reply, but his phone ringing interrupted them. Elena turned around to reach for the phone.

"It's Stefan."

xxxdelenaxxx

"You're not celebrating?"

Bonnie tilted her head to the side to look over the back of the couch.

"Not my victory, not my champagne," she said with a shrug, returning her gaze to the steaming cup in her hands.

Jeremy stifled a smile and walked into the room, glancing over his shoulder at the sounds of laughter coming from the parlor.

"You _are_ still grumpy about it," he said, walking around the couch and taking a seat across from Bonnie.

Bonnie snorted mirthlessly. "Caroline thinks I'm grumpy. I'm not grumpy. I'm..." She trailed off with a frown, her lips near the edge of the cup. "Maybe I'm just not ready for everything to be alright," she admitted honestly, watching the steam waft up in thin, transparent flames. "It's funny how you get used to being unhappy," she added grimly with a sigh, but then quickly put the cup away and sat upright. "Have you talked to your parents yesterday?" Pulling her legs up to rest her chin on her knees, Bonnie shifted her eyes to Jeremy.

"Is that Shane's tea?" Jeremy asked, pointing to the cup with exaggerated interest.

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at him. "Why does everyone have a problem with his tea? It's the best tea. Besides, we left him to die on a deserted island, so I think he deserves to be cut some slack. So. Did you talk to your dad?"

Jeremy's weak smile turned into a small grimace. "Yeah," he said, propping his head on his elbow and dropping his gaze to the floor for a few seconds. "My dad... he kind of apologized, I guess. I'm not sure what he really thinks, but anyway. Once we finished talking about that my mom wanted to know all about Damon."

Bonnie raised her eyebrows. "What did you tell her?" She asked, already amused by the prospective answer.

Jeremy chuckled under his breath. "I'll tell you if you promise you won't tell Damon I said it."

"Bonnie!"

Caroline's voice broke into the conversation and Jeremy's eyes darted to her as soon as she stormed into the room.

"If Kai just woke up because your sister-in-law flubbed the spell, I don't even want to hear about it," Bonnie murmured in a flat voice, slowly turning around to look at Caroline.

But then her disinterested expression turned alert at the sight of sincere worry written all over Caroline's face. "You're going to kill me."

xxxdelenaxxx

Lily and Desmond looked like they both couldn't stop staring at Damon, and Elena thought that if there was any silver lining to this situation, it was the fact that Lily looked quite shaken by the state Damon was in.

John glanced at Isobel who seemed to be the only person able to behave in a fairly casual way following the shocking revelation.

"Can't someone else reverse the spell?" John asked, the bereaved look on Elena's face suddenly making him feel guilty for not appreciating how happy she'd looked the day before.

"Bonnie, her grandmother and Klaus' sister are working on it," Elena replied, trying to sound more confident than she felt. "But they need to find or figure out the original spell to be able to even start thinking about removing it, so it's going to take time."

"I don't understand. What did that Kai do exactly?" Desmond asked, splaying his hands over the table to keep them from shaking.

That flicker of hope that the past could be healed, that a better future existed, that flicker that was ignited in his heart yesterday now seemed so far away and he couldn't understand why. He felt as if he was dying all over again.

"He probably triggered the natural aging process," Elena said with a frown. "That's what Bonnie said. And because it is, well, natural, that's why it's so difficult to stop. It's more than a regular curse. It's more than magic, if that makes sense."

"Shouldn't they have called us before putting him to sleep?" John pointed out in a wry voice.

"Irrelevant complaint," Isobel observed unsmilingly.

"So what's going to happen now?"

Elena felt a cold shiver run up her spine at the familiar hint of denial in Desmond's voice. She was holding onto that denial herself, because without it she wouldn't be able to be sitting here with everyone, talking. If she allowed herself to think, even for a second, that there was no cure-

She gritted her teeth at the thought that had started nagging her ever since Stefan's phone call. It was all her fault. It was her who had wanted them to become human. Of course Kai's spell wasn't her fault, but in a way, this spell was only an accelerated version of what was going to happen one day anyway. She hadn't thought about it like that before. Somehow it hadn't occurred to her, not in such a painfully clear way, that being human meant that they would eventually lose each other. She'd been so focused on happy, ordinary human life, on starting a family, on living their lives together, on growing old together, that dying had conveniently slipped her mind.

Now, looking at Damon's elderly appearance she felt nothing but overpowering fear. It didn't matter what he looked like. She was hardly aware of his wrinkles and gray hair. But what she was becoming more and more acutely aware of was that he was growing older with every passing second, which only validated their suspicion that Kai didn't simply placed a spell on him to make him look and feel old, but that it was rather a dynamic spell causing Damon's actual age to be catching up with him. Elena drew a sharp intake of breath, stubbornly blocking the thought that no human could still be alive at such an age.

For a longer while Desmond's question was left unanswered, his eyes darting between Elena and Damon who remained quiet since the beginning of the conversation. Quiet and motionless, except for his fingertips slowly stroking the backs of Elena's fingers, her hand clasped in his.

"I think we should still retrieve the grimoire," Isobel said at last, breaking the silence, trying to make her voice sound as matter-of-fact as possible. "Kai isn't dead, just asleep, so he's going to want to get his hands on this book one day anyway. I think we all agree it's best if he won't."

John snorted mirthlessly. "I think there's plenty of time to worry about that. Under the circumstances, going back to Mystic Falls seems to be a more sensible idea."

Elena's eyes flew to him and he gave her a weak, reassuring smile that caught her a little off guard. It suddenly occurred to her that maybe he hadn't been ignoring everything she'd been saying about Damon and their life together.

"Yes, if Bonnie finds something, it will be important to act on it right away. The faster we go back home the better," Elena said, glancing at Damon and already sensing that he might be of a different opinion.

"Isobel's right," Damon said pensively, wondering if all the memories flickering through his mind were an effect of his subconscious playing tricks on him or perhaps it was just what was believed to be a common occurrence, having one's life play out in one's mind's eye shortly before it would end.

"I can go get the grimoire myself," Isobel offered, squinting. "There's no reason for everyone to tag along."

"Especially since we don't know if the grimoire or even the place where you put it still exists," John muttered, giving her a speculative look.

Isobel tapped her fingers against the coffee cup in front of her, clearly slightly exasperated with John's comments.

"If you must know, I hid the grimoire in an apartment in which I used to live. I'm sure someone is living there now, so I thought sneaking in during the day would be our best option. Chances are the current tenants won't be home."

"You mean breaking in during the day is our best option?" John corrected dryly.

"Do you mean yours and Ric's old apartment?" Elena asked.

John grimaced at the name.

"Yes," Isobel said, ignoring him.

"I think he kept it," Elena said, glancing at Damon who shrugged, indicating he wasn't sure, but that it was possible.

"So you are in touch with him?" Isobel inquired with a faint, sly smile.

"We are in the possession of what seemed to still be his current number several weeks ago, if that's what you mean," Damon replied with small grimace. "But we don't speak often."

"Did he leave because of that memory erasure story Enzo told us about?"

Elena sighed. "No. He... He was engaged to Kai's sister and Kai killed her... on their wedding day. She was pregnant," she added quietly after a pause.

"That's unimaginable," Desmond whispered, horrified.

Damon's eyes flickered to him for a second. Elena glanced at Damon and squeezed his hand hard in a comforting gesture.

Isobel straightened up in her seat with a pensive frown.

"That was the same day when the sleeping curse was placed over Elena," Damon added.

Lily clenched her jaw, staring at the napkin in front of her, waiting for her part in the story to be revealed, but after a few moments she realized it wasn't going to happen.

"Ric's had enough of all of this magical nightmares and he left." Elena said gloomily.

"But what do we do with the grimoire?" John asked, failing to see how all of this was actually relevant to what they were talking about a moment ago.

Elena looked at him, but then her attention shifted when she felt a tremor ran through Damon, a grimace of pain flitting across his face.

He wanted to automatically say that everything was alright... except that it wasn't and it made little sense to pretend that it was. If he was aging a year every few minutes, at this rate he'd die by the time they got back home, so even if the right spell was identified, there could be not enough time to put it to any use. What were the chances that a counter spell existed anyway? A cold, numbing realization was slowly falling over him that the only thing he still had time for was to say goodbye, to spend these last hours with Elena.

"We should go retrieve the grimoire ourselves and Damon and Elena should drive back home right away," Desmond said and Elena could see in his eyes that he made the greatest of efforts to keep his voice from faltering.

Which only made her realize with yet more certainty how grievous the situation was. She looked at her and Damon's hands locked together and felt panic creep up over her, her heartbeat quickening. It wasn't possible. It was just a beginning. They were back, they were finally back from the dead, from not remembering, from fear and loss. All the bad things were behind them. They were human. They were finally going to have a chance at a life they'd always wanted. It couldn't all suddenly end like that. Not like this. Not yet.

"That's a good idea," Isobel agreed with a nod. "We don't need six people to climb up a building, hop over a balcony rail and chop off a couple of floorboards."

"I see we even have a detailed plan. Great." John said with a grimace. "Should I write it down?"

"No, but perhaps you should stop talking," Isobel retorted, already getting ready to stand up.

John glanced around the table, Damon, Elena and Desmond's faces indeed clearly indicative of the mood they were in. Only Lily's expression still seemed difficult to decipher.

"And whatever happened to your dislike of sarcasm?" Isobel asked, giving him a look.

Elena didn't hear what John replied, all voices around her suddenly dwindling into a single shrill, piercing sound reverberating in her ears.

Slowly, she rose to her feet, her eyes fixed on Damon's hand holding hers as he led her out of the restaurant and the hotel and it was only when the morning air outside hit her that she fully realized what was happening.

The wind on her face felt unreal, the sun was incredibly bright and it didn't make any sense to her that the world could look so ordinary on its last day.

"No," Elena whispered in a quivering voice, feeling as if the daylight around her suddenly darkened into a night and it immediately reminded her about that horrible night in the crypt when she'd realized, when she'd started to realize that she was never going to see Damon again. "No." She snatched her hand free only to grab handfuls of Damon's clothes and shake him, her fingernails digging into the fabric of his jacket. That's what she would've done on that night in the crypt, had she been able to see him. "Damon. Don't do this. Don't think that. This is not the end," she stammered, choking on the words, on the tears streaming down her face.

She couldn't even find the right words, didn't know what she was saying, but she could _feel_ what he was thinking and she couldn't, she wouldn't let him.

"Elena."

The tone of Damon's voice and his weak smile was the best confirmation. Elena tried to scream, but no sound came out. She burst into uncontrollable sobs, trying to talk, but Damon's arms closed around her in a strong, desperate embrace and he held her so hard and so gently at the same time that after a moment she just buried her face in his chest and cried, clinging to him.

So many goodbyes. So many times, too many times when they had been thinking they were seeing each other for the last time.

"I can't do this. I can't do this again," Elena whispered, looking up at him.

"So don't, Elena," Damon said barely above a whisper, smiling sadly, knowing exactly what she meant.

There was a moment, years ago, when he'd thought he could've died at peace just knowing that she'd loved him. But at some point between his death and her sleep, clandestinely, it had become not enough. Only a real life together, one, full, complete lifetime could maybe be enough.

Damon cupped Elena's face in his hands and looked at her, brushing the tears off her cheeks with his thumbs. "Let's not waste our last day on saying goodbye. Let's just go on our last road trip." He leaned his forehead against hers with a weak, fleeting smirk. "Would you let me kidnap you this one last time?"

"Stop saying it's the last time," Elena whispered, shaking her head and trying to calm down, trying to believe her own words. "It's not!"

"Elena." Damon gathered her hands in his and raised them to his lips. He pressed a lingering kiss to her shaking fingers and looked her straight in the eyes so deeply that she held her breath. "If a miracle happens we'll have years to celebrate it. But if not... Let's not spend our... our last moments together deluding ourselves. That's not us. We're real, remember?" He whispered a little hoarsely and Elena felt more tears spring to her eyes at the sight of his eyes beginning to glimmer. "We'll always be real. Even if it ends today. I'll always love you and I want you to be happy."

Elena's face contorted in pain, tears flooding her eyes and Damon impetuously wrapped his arms around her and hugged her to him. "Elena," he whispered against the top of her head.

"You should know by now I don't have a clue how to be happy without you," Elena replied in a shaking, vehement whisper.

"But you _must_ ," Damon said softly, slowly stroking her hair with his hand. "You have a house full of people to take care of. Two, well, knowing you probably three sets of parents to familiarize with Instagram and Plants vs. Zombies. Stefan to keep from becoming every auto repair shop's owner nightmare. Bonnie from eating too many pancakes. And Liz may need help adjusting to the idea that she'll be spending her every Thanksgiving with crème de la crème of world's most prolific serial killers."

Elena tried to smile, but she could only continue crying. "Damon-"

He brushed his fingers over her lips in a hushing gesture. "Let's go before they'll drag us to star in a talk-show about marriages with huge age differences," he whispered, glancing around them and only then Elena noticed that a couple of people stopped to stare at them, not to mention those casting furtive, disapproving glances their way.

Damon laced Elena's hand through his arm as they started walking toward their car.

"Good name, Denver," Damon said with a faint smile, opening the door for Elena.

She looked up at him and tried to smile back through her tears, but failed and burst into even more tears when he added.

"And if we had a daughter, we'd name her Atlanta."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Stefan, I'm _so_ sorry," Caroline whispered earnestly with a pained expression on her face, dashing into Stefan's room after him.

"It's not your fault, Caroline." Stefan shook his head, turning toward her. "But I'd like to be left alone now. Please."

"But-"

"Caroline."

Caroline huffed in frustration. "But I can't just leave you alone!" She bit her lip and stood motionlessly, looking at Stefan in silence for a longer while.

Bad timing. Like always. Somehow they were always having these kinds of conversations when their loved ones were dying. Maybe it was the best hint of all.

"You know I told Damon he was the reason it hadn't worked out between you and I, because I thought that if I tell him that, he'll tell you and then you'll talk to me," Caroline blurted out with a soundless, humorless laugh.

Stefan blinked, his frown deepening. "I don't understand," he said, confused.

Caroline took a step toward him. "I wanted to talk to you, but you kept avoiding me, so I thought... I thought that if I say something bad about Damon, I'll get some kind of reaction out of you and make you talk to me." A mirthless half a grimace, half a smile was still on Caroline's face, but her tone was becoming more and more serious and sad.

Stefan's eyes wandered around the room for a second before focusing on Caroline again, the expression on his face still dominated by bafflement.

"If you had to choose between him and me, you'd choose him," Caroline said, exhaling, as if uttering the words was both painful and a relief. She looked at Stefan without blinking as if she was waiting for him to say something she knew he wasn't going to say. "If he had to choose between you and Elena, do you think he'd choose you?"

"I'm sorry, Caroline, but I really don't understand what you're saying," Stefan said, shaking his head in increasing bewilderment. "What does this have to do with anything? What are you trying to say?"

"I don't know," Caroline said with another nervous, bitter smile. "I guess what I'm trying to say is... is that you could never love me like I want to be loved, like everyone wants to be loved," she whispered, blinking back the tears and within a single moment she watched Stefan's confusion melt into some kind of numb, resigned dismay. "And I don't know if it's you or me. Or us. But... I'm so tired of trying to figure it out. I don't think love should be that complicated. Life is complicated. Everything around us is complicated. But love isn't. If it is... it means it isn't love. Not the kind of love..." She brushed the tears off her eyes with a stifled groan. "I want our friendship back. I want to smile again every time I think of you. I don't want... this, whatever it is. This strange thing that happened with us that makes us both unhappy. And I know it's the worst time to talk about this," she added quickly, shaking her head with a grimace. "But-"

She trailed off when she noticed Stefan standing very close to her.

"You always say the right thing at the wrong time or the other way around," he said quietly with a weak smile.

"Gee, thanks," Caroline said with a broken laugh that turned into a genuine smile when Stefan took her hands in his and squeezed them hard.

"I'd never want to lose your friendship and I'm sorry-"

"That's not something you can apologize for, so don't. It's nobody's fault. Let's just forget we slept together and be friends again," she added hastily.

"Well-said," Stefan said carefully after a pause and Caroline grinned, for the first time in what felt like an eternity seeing that bright spark in Stefan's eyes again, that spark that she knew so well, that she'd missed, that made her feel like she knew exactly what he was thinking.

xxxdelenaxxx

"You only saw me for a minute that day. How do you remember what I was wearing?" Elena asked with a smile that finally appeared after the first hour of driving in complete silence.

They had been holding each other's hands, Elena's cheek on Damon's shoulder, his cheek pressed to the top of her head, their eyes drifting between the road and each other until at some point they'd started to talk. All the memories, so vivid, like a neverending faerie of colors dancing in front of their eyes.

"You'd be surprised how quickly I developed an amazing ability to memorize every detail of your appearance, your every look, every word, every gesture. One of the first things I noticed... You always use your right hand to tuck your hair behind your left ear and your left hand to brush your hair behind your right ear."

Elena laughed under her breath. "I wouldn't be surprised," she said, glancing up at him. "I developed the same amazing ability just as quickly."

Damon looked at her and leaned down to kiss her.

"I guess we're home," he said, turning off the engine and Elena felt her heart sink, but only until she saw Bonnie ran toward the car with Caroline and Jeremy following close behind.

The expression on Bonnie's face was more feverish than reassuring, but at least it wasn't resignation and that alone ignited hope.

"Wow," Bonnie said, looking Damon up and down. "You're lucky you're rich," she said, glancing at Elena who weakly returned her smile. "OK, first of all, don't freak out-"

"Don't even listen to her!" Caroline interrupted Bonnie, waving her hands in the air.

"That's exactly what I was going to say," Bonnie said, pointing to Caroline. "Let's go. We need to talk."

"No, you don't."

Damon and Elena exchanged confused looks.

"Isobel called," Bonnie said with a small sigh that confused Elena even more. She sounded neither hopeless nor enthusiastic, but unwaveringly determined nonetheless. "She said they found that Grimoire of Antecedents. It does include the spell Kai talked about."

"Don't listen to her. You can't listen to her!" Caroline insisted. "She's _crazy_. Freya said it's a really really _really_ bad idea-"

"Freya? Really?" Bonnie exclaimed with a frown. "And we're going to listen to her and not me because?"

"Because she's like a million years older than you!"

Bonnie snorted. "And she's been _actually_ alive for what, ten days in total?"

"Your grandmother also thinks this is a bad idea!" Caroline exclaimed while Damon and Elena continued looking between them, trying to figure out what they were talking about. "Even Enzo thinks this is a bad idea!"

Bonnie laughed mirthlessly. "Enzo? He can't do a locator spell without CliffsNotes. How does his opinion suddenly matter anyway?"

"Every rational opinion matters now that you've gone completely mad!" Caroline shouted.

"Alright. Could you tell us what's going on?" Elena interrupted the argument, her eyes darting between Bonnie and Caroline.

They both shifted their eyes to her and fell silent, only now noticing how red-rimmed Elena's eyes were, her face covered with crisscrossing lines of dried tears.

Bonnie drew a breath and opened her mouth to speak, but Caroline was quicker.

"Bonnie thinks she can save Damon's life by sending him back in time."


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for your fantastic reviews! :):):)

Since this story is technically an alternate S7, I thought we should follow the canon example and make it a little more... _vintage_ , what do you think? ;)

 **Chapter 20**

Leaning against one of the kitchen cabinets, Jenna looked out of the window at the dark shapes of trees looming in the distance. She'd never had the time to just stare at the trees like that before. But maybe it wasn't too late to start doing it now, she thought with a cautious smile.

"Coffee break? Good idea. It's been an exhaustive discussion," Klaus said conversationally, glancing over his shoulder toward the parlor.

Jenna's head snapped into his direction and she just stared at him for a longer while. He was also merely looking back at her with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Am I supposed to say something?" Jenna finally asked in sharp voice. "Just because Elena seems to be over the fact that you killed her, it doesn't mean that I'm ever going to be over the fact that you killed me," she added, glaring at him coldly.

A fleeting smirk flew across Klaus' face. "Technically, I didn't kill Elena, but that's a story for another evening. I see your point. It's me who should say something, I suppose, although I fear there's nothing adequate I could say." He slowly walked into the kitchen and Jenna automatically took a few steps to the side to retain the distance between them.

"Adequate or true? Because I think you just aren't sorry, so yeah, saying that you are would be completely pointless," Jenna said, surprising herself with how confident she sounded.

But what surprised her even more was that after the initial shock she'd stopped looking at him as a petrifying monster. Snippets of memories that haunted her provided her with nothing but a horrifying figure whose face had no meaning, whose name didn't matter. Now she was still baffled and angry, but somehow able to look at him as a person. A loathsome person, but a person nonetheless and that alone was somehow making her feel less afraid.

"If you're asking whether I would've done it again... Under the same circumstances, yes," Klaus said slowly and Jenna didn't know if she should ignore or openly laugh at utter seriousness and sincerity in his eyes, as if he really thought that telling the truth, whatever that truth might be, was good enough. "But I do wish the circumstances would've been different."

"I'm moved to tears," Jenna deadpanned. "And of course it was the circumstances," she said with a sardonic grimace, moving toward the doorway while Klaus was now standing by the window, just out of the late sunlight's reach. "It's always the world's fault or other people's fault. And you know what? It usually is." She readjusted the hold she had over the steaming mug in her hands. "But circumstances and other people don't define us. It's what we choose to do under and despite the circumstances that does."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Don't you see that's the only way? " Bonnie asked, giving Caroline an incredulous look. She was growing increasingly tired of repeating the same thing over and over again while Caroline seemed immune to any and all arguments. "We don't have time to figure out what spell Kai used or how to undo it. The only way to save Damon's life is to send him back in time to when he was human and alive." She glanced at Damon and Elena who were sitting across from her. "I'm sure he'll find better things to do than trying to disrupt the course of world history, if that's what you're so worried about."

"I don't know. Sounds tempting," Damon whispered into Elena's ear, eliciting a weak smile from her.

She pressed her cheek closer to his as they were sitting rather quietly on a couch near the fireplace. Their second first meeting, Elena thought with an inward, bittersweet smile. _"We'll survive this. We always survive."_ Their fateful dance. _"I like our life when it is like this."_ She liked this room. She liked this house. Their home.

She was yet to Damon him that she was going with him, if only Bonnie said it was possible. But there was no reason why it shouldn't be, Elena thought, trying to remain optimistic. Either way, she was still waiting for her chance to ask the question, because so far it seemed not possible to interrupt Caroline even for a second.

"One more question," Caroline said with a huff.

Bonnie shot her a hopeful look. "One?"

Caroline narrowed her eyes at her. "Fine. Eight more questions."

Stifling a groan, Bonnie pressed the book in her hands against her face.

"One: is that black magic? Because maybe it's just me, but I find the combination of traveling in time and the witches' reverent attitude toward nature a little jarring. Two: how do you know it will work at all? Three: don't you think it's suspicious this spell doesn't require almost any ingredients or... other stuff apart from joined forces of witches who aren't related by blood? Four: have you heard about the grandfather paradox?"

Sarah failed to stifle a laugh and Caroline's eyes immediately darted to her.

"I'm sorry, but are we really bringing science into this?" Sarah asked with a small, apologetic grimace.

"Science has nothing to do with it," Caroline protested. "It's pure logic. If Damon kills his grandfather, he'll never be born."

"I don't see why Damon would decide to kill his grandfather, especially knowing that it'd prevent him from being born," Jeremy pointed out in what Caroline considered to be yet another attempt to annoy her, despite the fact that she was simply trying to be the voice of reason.

"Or maybe you can guarantee they won't meet?" Caroline said, tilting her head to the side and giving Bonnie a questioning look.

"Did you hire her as your legal representative or something?" Enzo asked in a low voice, leaning toward Damon and Elena.

"No, I can't," Bonnie sighed, putting the book back into her lap and glancing at Freya who nodded her head in confirmation. "Especially since I can only send him to 1864," Bonnie added a little grimly, glancing at Damon and Elena who gaped at her.

"That's... not the best year to go to," Stefan said cautiously.

"Really?" Bonnie shot him a look. "I know that. But we don't have a choice. I can only send him back to the year of his death."

"How does that even make sense?" Caroline asked, confused. "For most people the year of their death would be in the future, not in the past, and this is supposed be a spell for traveling _back_ in time or am I missing something?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, you're missing the fact that this spell was not meant for humans," Bonnie retorted.

Enzo raised his hand and Caroline half-turned toward him with an exasperated glare.

"Isn't Damon happily human now?" He asked with a smile.

"It's not that humans _can't_ use this spell. It's that this spell wasn't written with humans in mind," Freya explained, making the grimoire disappear off Bonnie's lap and reappear in her hands.

Since there was no time to waste, she'd earlier teleported the grimoire from Durham to Mystic Falls, so they wouldn't have to wait for Isobel, John, Lily and Desmond's return in order to read it.

"I'm sure you would've mentioned the possibility, if it was a possibility, before, but couldn't you just teleport Damon into the past?" Enzo asked, narrowing his eyes at Freya and feeling gratified that she didn't seem annoyed by all the flirtatious looks he was sending her throughout the day. "Somehow teleportation sounds less serious than time travel."

"I can only teleport objects and myself," Freya explained with a ghost of a smile flickering across her face. "And only across space, not across time," she added, turning a page in the grimoire.

"So is it black magic or not?" Caroline repeated her earlier question after a pause, straightening up and turning her gaze to Sheila who she thought was being suspiciously quiet. "Or maybe it's _expression_?" She gave Bonnie a meaningful look.

"It's more of a... magic of the desperate," Sheila replied calmly, too calmly, Caroline thought, shifting her eyes between Bonnie and her grandmother. "Powerful, dangerous. Unpredictable."

"Oh _dear_. Sound like maybe we shouldn't be using it," Caroline said in a mockingly lighthearted voice, widening her eyes at Bonnie.

Bonnie ignored her, her attention drawn to Elena who looked like she wanted to say something.

"What does it mean? Magic of the desperate?" Miranda asked, leaning forward in her chair and glancing at Elena who was sitting nearby with a look in her eyes that worried her, because it reminded her of moments of stubbornness that made for adorable childhood memories, but seemed alarming to her now.

Sheila gave her a faint smile. "It was written by witches who were in love with vampires."

"I like this story already," Enzo said, clasping his hands behind his head.

"Their covens wouldn't let them live in peace with creatures they scorned, not on their watch," Sheila continued. "So they created a book of spells that could help them escape and hide, disappear without a trace, so they could live their lives with their loved ones, undisturbed."

"And to answer your question whether this spell is going to work," Bonnie said, looking straight at Caroline. "They wouldn't write an entire book on a spell that was a failure."

Caroline laughed humorlessly. "That'd be the ninety ninth assumption based on nothing that you've made today."

"Unless it's a trap," Sarah said speculatively.

Bonnie shook her head. "Fake spells are never that elaborate."

Enzo grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from a nearby table and pretended to start taking notes. Bonnie crossed her arms over her chest watching him for a few moments with a stern expression.

"Well, the incantation itself is shockingly short, so I'm not sure what's so elaborate about it, but whatever," Caroline said with a sigh. "If it's such a complex and mysterious book, how did Isobel of all people get it?"

"It's probably just one of these things. Like the most vicious vampire in all history falling for a small town fashionista," Bonnie replied so immediately and smoothly that it took Caroline a second to realize what she was saying. "Like, you know. Weird things happen."

Caroline glared at her. "I can't believe that with all of these things going on you still find the time to be mean to me!" She exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air.

"I need my share of entertainment, sorry," Bonnie said with a shrug, but for the first time Caroline noticed a warm glimmer in her eyes and it made her think back to pajama parties and ghost stories whispered in tents made of pillows and blankets.

"You'll have to forgive a drowsy old man for only now sparing you the trouble of this entire discussion," Damon suddenly spoke up, slowly straightening up in his seat and Caroline frowned, not sure if she only imagined or really heard the sound of his bones cracking when he moved. "I zoned out. But anyway. I'm not going anywhere." Elena's eyes darted to him in alarm. "So at the risk of coming across as overbearing, I'd like to talk to everyone for a few moments. Starting with..." he shifted his eyes to Sarah. "Are your parents upstairs?"

"Yes," Sarah said uncertainly, glancing at Jeremy who was looking between Damon and Elena in a careful, worried manner.

"Wait. What?" Elena grabbed Damon's hand before he managed to stand up. "What do you mean you're not going anywhere?"

"Careful. If you break my fingers, they'll look bizarre in the coffin."

"Damon!"

"I'm not going to travel back in time just to live for several more years and then die," he explained vehemently with a grimace. Then his voice grew softer. "Die without you by my side."

"But-" Elena tried again, feeling a familiar twinge of fear at sensing opposition.

If there was someone as stubborn as her it was him. But Damon interrupted her.

"Not to mention that if Bonnie messes up the stanzas, I may end up stuck in some in-between world with her crazy ancestors. No offense," he added, glancing at Sheila. "Not a fun option."

"I regret every single time I let you borrow my one-dollar sunglasses," Bonnie said levelly.

"I'm simply too old to take this kind of risk," Damon continued in a mockingly calm voice.

"Damon, this isn't funny," Elena said, cupping his face in her hands and looking him deeply in the eyes. She slowly brushed her fingertips over his paper-thin, wrinkled cheeks and with a tentative smile drew a breath that made his aging heart suddenly bit very fast at the memory this look in Elena's eyes evoked.

" _You."_

"I'm going with you."

"What?!" Caroline crossed the entire room in three strides, her facial expression matching the ones that appeared on Miranda and Grayson's faces.

Stefan slowly moved from his place near the window and walked up closer to Damon and Elena.

"You can send us both in time, right?" Elena asked, looking between Bonnie and Freya. "It must be possible if this grimoire was created by witches who wanted to travel back in time to be with their loved ones. In fact, it sounds like it was designed to work for couples."

"Wait a minute," Caroline cut in, finding the enthusiasm in Elena's voice appalling. Was she really the only one able to see red flags all over this whole idea? "Bonnie said you can only travel to the year of your death and in case of you and Damon these are two different dates."

"It doesn't matter. If they're traveling together, we can send them into one of them," Bonnie said matter-of-factly. "Of course sending them into the year of Elena's death is not possible, because Damon was a vampire then. We need to send him back to the time when he was human. Only then he'll be free of Kai's curse."

"Great, except that in 1864 Elena wasn't human because she didn't exist at all!" Caroline exclaimed.

"That's not an obstacle," Freya observed with a hint of admiration in her tone.

She thought she could grow to like this town and these impulsive, daft people very much.

"So what? Damon and Elena are going to travel back to 1864, run into... past Damon and then what?" Caroline asked impatiently.

"They won't stay in Mystic Falls. The fact that they'll arrive there and then is just a minor inconvenience. They'll just have to leave as soon as possible and live their lives far away from there, not interrupting the future in the slightest."

"Are you certain it works like that? Or do you want it to work like that? You speed-read that spell! It has over fifty pages! You won't be able to analyze every detail of it before actually using it. How do you even know they will remember who they are? What if they won't remember anything, in which case they won't know they'll have to leave town! I'm sure Katherine will be overjoyed to have Elena walk right into her claws, so she can trade a human doppelganger to Klaus in exchange for her freedom."

"I heard my name being spoken," Klaus said cheerfully, coming back into the parlor. "In a favorable context, I hope?"

"Worst possible. But if you want to make up for _all_ of your past wrongdoings, take Caroline out of this room," Bonnie muttered through her teeth.

"You didn't answer the question. Are you sure they'll remember their past, their future, whatever?" Caroline insisted, unfazed.

Klaus offered Caroline his arm, but she ignored him, staring at Bonnie just like she was staring at her. For a longer while the room drowned in uneasy silence.

Elena glanced at Damon, her eyes widening slightly at how he seemed to age even more within the last several minutes. They were running out of time.

"No, I don't know what happens to their memories," Bonnie admitted, storming to her feet. "I don't even know if it will work or not. But do you know what I do know?" She asked in an agitated voice that only her anger seemed to keep from shaking. "I know that, so far, every time we gave up on something or someone, we were wrong and every time when we refused to give up, we were right. That's what I know. I know that hope works. So if Damon and Elena also believe that it may work, we're going to take our chances and give it a try."

"We went through not remembering we loved each other. Twice," Elena said, giving Caroline a small smile. "Going through merely not knowing each other doesn't seem all that frightening. And in case we lose our memories, we can take something that tells us, if not about everything that had happened, I don't think we have time to write all of that down, then at least we can take a note with us that will tell us to leave Mystic Falls and never come back."

"Right. Because we'd all blindly follow a random piece of advice we'd find stuck in our shoe or wherever you think of putting it," Caroline said sardonically. "And even if you did. Then what? You'd move into a cottage at the end of the world and spend the rest of your life chopping wood, eating berries and not talking to anyone? Because anyone you meet, anywhere you go, anything you do could potentially change the future!"

"You could prevent a war or two, that'd be nice," Enzo offered.

"No, it wouldn't be nice, because things like that aren't supposed to happen! They can have unforeseeable consequences!"

"You do realize that the very existence of this grimoire means that at least several people have already gone back in time? And as you can see, the world didn't explode because of it," Bonnie said dryly.

"Maybe it's different with witches and vampires. You said yourself the spell was designed for them. How do you know it will work just as well for two humans?"

"Let them decide."

"Elena's staying here and I'm going to die," Damon replied immediately. "There. Can I go now? I really have a few things to say before I go for good."

After brushing a kiss across Elena's cheek, Damon stood up and as fast as his current state allowed he headed for the stairs.

Bonnie looked at Elena who followed Damon with her gaze and when he disappeared up the stairs she said with a hint of unyielding determination in her voice. "If there are any preparations to be made, start on them. We're going."

"Elena," Miranda looked at her with an anxious frown, rising to her feet and glancing at her husband.

"Can we talk to you for a moment?" Grayson asked in a low voice.

xxxdelenaxxx

" _What would you do if you found that much gold?" Lily asked with a curious, amused smile, gliding her fingers across an illustration in the book, piles of treasures drawn so carefully that they seemed to be glowing off the pages._

" _Buy a castle for you!" A light-haired four-year-old boy exclaimed after a moment of serious consideration, snuggling under one of Lily's arms._

" _And a carriage," his dark-haired eleven-year-old brother added, his cheek pressed to Lily's shoulder. "And all the books and all the flowers-"_

" _And all the diamonds!" Stefan added enthusiastically, bouncing on the bed. "And gold mines!"_

" _You can't put gold mines into a house," Damon pointed out._

" _Why not?" Stefan asked with a pout._

" _I could not wish for more kindhearted children," Lily said with a smile and then without a warning started tickling them both at the same time. The three of them burst into chuckles, but laughter lasted only for a few moments before Lily hushed them, furtively shooting a hasty glance toward the door. "However, I am not sure if there exists a castle so vast as to hold all the books and all the diamonds," she said, bringing a soft smile back onto her face._

" _We could build a really big castle!" Stefan reassured her._

" _On a mountain, by the sea, far away from here," Damon said with a trace of suppressed dreaminess in his voice._

 _He put away the book Lily handed to him._

 _Stefan leaned toward Lily's ear. "So father would never find us," he whispered and Lily's bright expression faded into one of resigned sadness._

"Sugar? Cream? Cinnamon?"

Lily shuddered and turned her unseeing gaze away from the window. She blinked a few times before she noticed a paper cup in front of her. She automatically took it from Isobel's hands.

"Cinnamon?" John gave Isobel a dubious and then an incredulous look when she showed him a cinnamon shaker. "I see. We don't have time to buy a newspaper, but we do have time for grocery shopping."

"What kind of person thinks about reading newspapers while their daughter's preparing to travel across time and space?" Isobel asked in flat voice, handing a coffee cup to Desmond and then shifting back to her seat.

Desmond's eyes darted after her, just like John's did.

"Excuse me?" John asked with a scowl. "Since when Elena's going anywhere?"

"Since she didn't take her best qualities after you," Isobel said, opening the window by her side and squinting into the wind.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Do you really think that an outdated apology-" Zach started in a sharp voice, but Gail cut him of.

"Zach."

He shifted his eyes to her, glancing at Sarah who was perched on the armrest of the couch Gail was sitting on.

Zach gave her a confused look.

"Forgiveness is not a result of any equation," Gail said with a faint smile. "It's a choice you can make." She turned her gaze to Damon and stood up, catching him off guard by reaching out for his hand.

He blinked and drew a sharp intake of breath before quickly grasping Gail's hand with his gnarled fingers.

"I forgive you," she said in a low, firm voice and then added in a slightly humorous tone. "Not that it's very difficult under the circumstances." She glanced over her shoulder at Sarah who smiled back at her. "My daughter's alive and happy. My husband and I are here, able to see her being happy. The least I can do in appreciation of that is to grant forgiveness for an act I don't think I know enough about to judge. We all have our demons feeding on damages done to us, but I'm thinking that every time we apologize and every time we forgive we come closer to vanquishing them, one by one."

xxxdelenaxxx

"You didn't think that over well enough, Elena," Grayson insisted, glancing at Miranda for assistance and feeling like she wasn't doing her best and mostly just standing there and listening to Elena, whose words would've sounded merely sappy under less dire circumstances, but right now every sentence only made him grow more anxious and concerned.

"There's nothing to think about, dad," Elena said with a grimace, wrapping her arms around herself. "We can either leave or Damon's going to die. We don't have a choice."

"You don't have to go with him," Grayson said in a low voice.

"But he won't go without me," Elena said with a broken smile. "And I don't want to stay here without him. We can have a normal life somewhere far away, in the 19th century, but what's difference does it make? We'll be together. And I'll miss you, so much," she said earnestly. "I just got you back. I'll miss you and Jenna, Jeremy, Bonnie, Caroline, everyone. But..." She trailed off. "I can't live without him," she added barely above a whisper, looking between her parents with an apologetic, pleading look, silently asking them to understand.

Miranda drew a breath, trying to muster a smile. She took a step toward Elena and hugged her with abrupt desperation that brought tears to Elena's eyes.

"Would you feel the same way if we didn't disappoint you?" Grayson blurted out, his teeth clenching. "Adoption we didn't tell you about, The Augustine Society."

Elena shook her head. "It has nothing to do with that. I was upset, but... I don't love you less because you made mistakes. I made many myself," she said with a wry smile.

"You're making one right now," Grayson said in a grim whisper.

Elena smiled. "No. Right now I'm sure I'm right."

xxxdelenaxxx

"That's nice that Elena decided to go with you," Enzo said, pouring bourbon into the glasses on the table. "If she didn't, I'd have to spend the next sixty years or so just following her around to make sure she would die single."

"If only all of us could be as fortunate as to have such devoted and thoughtful friends as you," Bonnie said mockingly.

"I know, right?" Enzo said with a smirk, handing glasses to her and Damon. "On a more practical note, can I stay here?" He asked, looking around the room.

"No one in this house likes you," Bonnie said flatly.

Enzo wiggled his finger at her. "Wrong. You like me. I think Isobel, Klaus' sister and that pretty red-haired girl like me. Caroline likes to hate me and I'm friends with Sarah."

Bonnie snorted. "Even assuming that ludicrous assessment was right, I don't think it's common for people to be living under one roof with all of their friends."

"Unless said friends are homeless. Point in case, I'm homeless," Enzo said, extending his arms.

"As much fun as I'm having listening to you, I don't want this to be my last memory on this earth," Damon said, looking between Bonnie and Enzo. "Hope you understand."

"That's why I said I didn't have time for that when you called me," Bonnie said, turning toward the door.

Damon looked after her, confused. "Where are you going?"

"Freya's assembling ingredients outside. I have to help her. I'll meet you there."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Bonnie, I thought I made myself clear."

"Can you enlighten him? Because I really need to go."

Without sparing Damon another glance Bonnie marched out of the room.

"What?" Damon asked impatiently, turning toward Enzo.

"Do you know how many times your opinion prevailed upon Elena's?"

Damon's forehead wrinkled in thought.

Enzo raised his eyebrows. "You aren't actually trying to count, are you? Because the answer is _zero_."

"Hilarious," Damon muttered before turning around at the sound of the door screeching.

"Here you are," Elena walked into the room in a red sweater Damon quickly recognized.

He snorted mirthlessly, narrowing his eyes at Elena. Then his eyes darted to Enzo who briefly squeezed his shoulder.

"I'll miss you, man," Enzo said in a low, gruff voice, before stepping away with a wistful smile. "Have a happy life. Send me a postcard if you can," he said with a wink, giving Elena a smile on his way out of the room.

"Cute outfit," Damon said when the door closed behind Enzo.

"Thank you. It's my favorite outfit for road trips," Elena said, a ghost of a mischievous smile flickering across her face.

She walked up to Damon and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Driving to Denver is not the same thing as dashing through time," Damon said, cupping her face in his hands.

"No, unfortunately it isn't," Elena said with a sigh. "Apparently, we can't even take one suitcase with us."

"That's too bad," Damon acknowledged in a matching tone. "Especially since the first Victoria's Secret store opened in 1977."

Elena laughed briefly, but then frowned when the expression on Damon's face grew serious.

"Elena, think about it yet, please. You have a life here. All of your friends. Your parents are back. And what about your dreams? Becoming a doctor. It's not a fair trade. Giving it all up... for me," he said under his breath, brushing his thumb across her cheek.

"I'm not giving anything up," Elena said firmly. "Have you ever watched _Dr. Quinn_?"

Damon grimaced. "You know what I mean."

"I'm not giving anything up for you," Elena said after a pause, covering Damon's hands on her face with hers and holding onto them tight. "I'm doing it for us," she said with a meaningful smile and the light in her eyes reminded Damon of that moment in the bright, aureate chapel when he'd told her he was going to take the cure. Not for her. For them. "I wish we could have everything. The life that we wanted, our family and friends, but if we can't have everything and if we do have to choose, I'm choosing you." She paused and then added in a low, warm voice, all the memories and dreams laced into it. "I'll always choose you."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Tell me. Be honest. I'm crazy or they're crazy?" Caroline whispered through her teeth standing in the backyard of the boarding house next to Klaus and watching Bonnie, Sheila and Freya pour the potion they'd made over the shape of a circle drawn on the ground.

"I'm afraid I'm not the most appropriate person to ask, love," Klaus replied, glancing at her with a small smile.

"Why? Because you're crazy? Would you agree to travel back in time?"

"Not to the year of my death."

Caroline shot him a look.

"You have to leave and arrive through one of the elements, so we figured leaving through fire would be the best choice, since it means you won't arrive through it," Bonnie explained, stepping outside of the circle and glancing at it over her shoulder.

"Could arriving through air potentially mean being dropped down from a cloud? Because I can see that not working out very well either," Damon said, stepping into the circle after he and Elena had said their goodbyes to everyone.

The expression in Stefan's eyes during their goodbye was so bereaved that Elena couldn't shake off the sense of guilt that it was in a way all her fault, that it was her taking the cure that had started the chain of events leading to her and Damon having to leave their lives, family and friends behind. But there was no more time for apologies.

She waved to Hope, who was standing next to Klaus, clutching to herself a short letter that she and Damon had written to her. While writing short notes for Isobel and John, Elena had decided to write a note to Hope just in case she hadn't made it to say goodbye. Fortunately, Liz and Hope had arrived shortly before Bonnie and Freya had started on the spell. Elena looked toward the road that remained dark, no headlines breaking the evening air. She was glad she'd made Damon write to Desmond and Lily as well, because they probably weren't going to make it on time.

"Why Bonnie's Grandma isn't doing anything?" Hope asked in a low voice, wrinkling her nose, and tilting her head backwards to look at Klaus.

"Apparently, two witches are enough to perform a time travel spell," Caroline replied before Klaus had a chance to, a hint of dark sarcasm in her voice.

"She has to stay clear of the spell in case something goes wrong and she has to interfere. If she got involved right away, she couldn't save the spell in case it started falling apart," Klaus explained, out of the corner of his eyes seeing Caroline's eyes turn to him.

"How do you know that?" Caroline asked after a pause, while Hope seemed satisfied with the explanation and with a sad frown went back to looking at the spell being performed.

"As you may remember, my mother wanted to lock me up in a witch's body," Klaus replied with a small smirk. "It's always advisable to research an offer thoroughly before refusing it."

"Is that what you're doing here?" Caroline blurted out after a pause. Klaus gave her a slightly confused look. "Don't tell me that with Rebekah and Elijah being away you left New Orleans without thinking twice about it and that you actually have the time to spare just to be here, assisting us in matters that don't concern you."

Klaus looked at her, a confused expression slowly giving way to an aggravatingly smug one. "Forgive me if I'm overinterpreting, but if you're suggesting I'm _researching_ here, does it mean _someone_ is making me an _offer_?"

Caroline thrust up her chin and looked away from him. "We're kind of having a funeral here, so let's talk about other things later."

"A funeral?" Hope exclaimed, baffled and distraught, but Klaus quickly cleared up the misunderstanding.

"Are you ready?" Bonnie asked, loud enough for everyone nearby to hear it.

She looked between Damon and Elena who after taking one last look around grasped each other's hands and nodded.

Bonnie gestured for Freya to start and soon the evening air burst into the fire around Damon and Elena, separating them from everyone else standing outside the mandala.

In just a few moments the yellow flames, became orange, then blindingly red, climbing higher and higher until they seemed to reach all the way into the inky sky.

Damon grabbed Elena to hold her and with bated breath they watched the sky brighten above them. But before they had the time to really take in the sight, the ground under their feet seemed to shift and all of a sudden the earth and the sky both seemed to disappear. They felt as if the fire surrounding them flew _through_ them, but without burning them.

In the next moment the darkness and light flickered around them like tiny kaleidoscopic images, black and white, then blindingly colorful. A simultaneously freezing cold and hot gusts of wind swished around them and their eyes seemed to close out of their own accord, astonishingly slowly.

It felt like falling asleep, but without fear, without regret.

The last thing Damon could feel was Elena's lips on his.

xxxdelenaxxx

At first Stefan thought he only imagined the sound, but then it became so clear he had to acknowledge it.

He tore his gaze away from the flames and turned around. Someone dashed out of the car and ran, ran so fast and yet in such a distinctly elegant yet uneven manner, that despite thinking it entirely unlikely, he knew immediately who it was.

Lily stormed past him, but then she stopped, her eyes widening at the sight of tall flames dispersing in the evening air just as abruptly as they had appeared.

The mandala was empty, except for the ground inside it steaming, as if it had been washed over by fiery rain.

Stefan watched his mother's eyes dart all over the empty shape, as if she couldn't believe the sight.

"We couldn't wait any longer. Damon was deteriorating quickly," Stefan explained in a low voice, taking a few steps toward Lily, not sure what to make of her behavior. "This one is for you," he said, extending his hand with one of four small envelopes to her.

Slowly, Lily turned around and Stefan blinked, caught off guard by the tears on her face.

Without a word, Lily took the letter from his hands and after a moment of hesitation pulled a small piece of paper out of it.

She stared at the note for a longer while and Stefan couldn't read her facial expression. But then she astonished him once again by stifling a cry, dropping the note and hiding her face in her hands.

Stefan was about to pick up the letter, but Desmond, who had just walked up to them, beat him to it.

 _Dear Mother,_

 _I hope this letter finds you well._

 _(Yes, that's Elena's handwriting, but the rest is mine.)_

 _Be nice to Stefan. Don't kill anyone. Help yourself to the library. Too many dead people around to grow flowers and no diamonds because all cash goes to Stefan's hairdresser, but the amount of books should be satisfactory._

 _Stop being afraid. You're safe. You're home._

 _Damon_

xxxdelenaxxx

Damon felt as if it was the sunlight itself that woke him up, because when he opened his eyes, the light was shining down on him, flickering, as if there was some meaning to each splash of brightness.

Then he realized that the sunlight wasn't flickering. It was just him, blinking while...

While floating on the water?!

His eyes widened and out of shock caused by the discovery, he moved his arms and legs so rapidly that some water got into his lungs.

Coughing, he wiped the water off his eyes and looked around, trying to figure out what had happened. He couldn't recall for the life of him how he'd landed in the water.

Strangely enough, despite the river being rather calm and the fact that he was merely keeping himself above the water surface, he could still hear loud splashes-

Hear and _feel_ , he realized and turning around in puzzlement he suddenly saw someone nearby, apparently struggling not to drown.

Without giving it another thought, Damon lunged himself forward and swam toward the person in the water as fast as he could.

He didn't like to swim, but he should probably thank Stefan for coercing him to learn, otherwise, he might have been in serious trouble right now.

Both him and the person... the girl, he quickly realized, that was now almost dragging him underwater by clinging to him so hard in her instinctive, desperate attempt not to drown.

"It's alright, I got you, I got you." He had to repeat the words a few times before they seemed to register with the girl. "I'm Damon," he added quickly, the first thing that came to his mind as reassuring.

Because when she stopped thrashing around, she looked at him with very, very, very beautiful, but also wide and terrified eyes, so he decided that introducing himself would add some credibility to him and made her feel safe.

Not that convicts or kidnappers didn't have names to introduce themselves with, but he hoped she'd at least see in his eyes that he meant her no harm.

She looked at him, her breathing still uneven from exertion and he found the way in which she was breathing in and out with her lips slightly parted highly distracting, but he didn't think she'd appreciate a stranger staring at her lips, so he focused on looking very intensely into her eyes, which fortunately was far from difficult. He was sure not even the most accomplished of painters could ever do them justice.

"I'm Elena," the girl finally said barely above a whisper and he started to smile, but a look of dismay that appeared on her face shortly after made his smile turn into a worried frown. "I don't remember anything else. Just my name." She grimaced, her eyes darting right and left in horrified confusion. "How is that possible? What happened?"

Damon shook his head with a grimace. He wished he could tell her what had happened to her, but as it were, he didn't even know what had happened to him. The last thing he remembered was walking out of the apothecary and taking a shortcut home...

His eyes darted back to Elena and his breath caught in his throat at the sight of her looking at him with caution, because he was a stranger, but also with hope, as if she expected him to have all the answers.


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: Thank you **so much** for your amazing reviews! :]:]:]

Since I got asked about this a couple of times lately, just a little reminder: this year the story's going to be longer than 22 chapters ;)

 **Chapter 21**

Damon wished he had an answer to Elena's question, but since he didn't know how he'd landed in the water himself, he couldn't really provide her with any insight as to what had happened to her. However, he doubted admitting that he was just as clueless was a good beginning of the conversation, so he decided to start with a reasonable suggestion that they should discuss the situation after getting out of the water.

Unfortunately, it turned out not the be the best idea either, because the suggestion led to a discovery that made Elena's face drain of all color.

"Where are my clothes?" She whispered, horrified and Damon blinked, the confusion that she must've noticed on his face probably saving him from being accused of having something to do with her clothes being gone.

He'd been so bewildered by the entire situation and then so focused on getting Elena to calm down after rescuing her from what could've very well led to drowning, that he hadn't even noticed quite a noticeable fact that the girl in his arms was indeed unclad.

"I don't know," Damon replied in a hurried whisper, all thoughts concerning what to say and what not to say immediately flying out of his head.

All of a sudden he became acutely aware of his open palm pressed against Elena's bare skin and he wondered if he should stop holding her. Chances were, she wouldn't drown with him nearby, but at the same time he didn't know if she could swim or not. Which, he thought, might or might not be considered by her a valid excuse for him not taking his hands off her.

Elena instinctively wrapped her arms around herself and with her hands no longer anchored on his shoulders, Damon was afraid she'd... Well, he wasn't sure what was precisely his reasoning there, but he automatically tightened his embrace around her, one of his hands sliding roughly up her back.

Elena's eyes darted to his in alarm, the movement of his arms probably abrupt enough to make it look suspicious under the circumstances, but before the fear could materialize in a form of a slap he was sure he deserved if only for not noticing her lack of clothes right away, Damon blurted out the only quick solution that came to his mind.

"I'll give you my shirt!"

Granted, his shirt was soaking wet which made the white fabric more than a little transparent, but he thought that the idea would at least signal to Elena that his intentions were amiable.

Having unbuttoned his shirt half-way through, Damon awkwardly wiggled his arms out of the sleeves and pulled his shirt over his head with one hand while still supporting Elena with the other.

With Elena's help, they managed to slide the shirt over Elena's head and shoulders and Damon even squinted in order to obscure his vision. He also tried to focus on her face only, but despite his best efforts he couldn't exactly not see, on the periphery of his vision but still, the upper part of Elena's body that he found very alluring despite trying not to think about it at all.

"There," Damon said with a weak, reassuring smile, hoping Elena wouldn't notice how his shirt was clinging to her, because if she looked herself over, he wasn't sure she wouldn't have started questioning his intentions all over again.

They swam together toward the river bank and when they were close enough that they could feel the ground under their feet, Elena gasped, a grimace of pain flitting across her face.

With a worried frown, Damon lightly touched her cheek. "How are you feeling?"

Elena's eyes darted to his face and for a few moments they were staring at each other in silence, the sound of river humming in the background.

"Something is wrong with my foot," Elena murmured at last, shaking herself out of her reverie.

He should've probably warned her, but acting on an impulse, Damon just swept Elena into his arms and gently sat her down on the grass.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, only then noticing that she didn't immediately remove her arms from around his neck.

Their eyes met for a second and then Elena blinked rapidly and drew her hands back to cross them over her chest in a protective gesture.

Wet strands of hair were clinging to her cheeks and Damon's eyes lingered on her face for a few more moments.

Her delicate features, brown, shining eyes and dark, sunlit hair made for the most mesmerizing sight and he found it difficult to tear his gaze away from her. But remembering her earlier words, he turned his attention to her foot and frowned when he realized it was bleeding.

"There must've been something sharp in the water," he said, absently glancing right and left in search of something to use as a bandage and since no better idea came to mind, he used his teeth to tear off the lower part of his trousers from around his left leg. He paused briefly, only then noticing that he must've lost his shoes in the water.

Squatting down near the river, Damon gently lifted Elena's foot and after washing off the blood, he wrapped the fabric around her foot and tied a knot over her ankle.

Elena was sitting very still, watching him in silence and he was rather stunned by how just knowing that she was looking at him made his heart race.

"Thank you," Elena whispered in a slightly strained voice when Damon's eyes shifted back to her. "I will try to stand."

She propped her hands on the ground, but Damon quickly stopped her.

"Miss Elena, you can't walk with your foot hurt. I will carry you home," he said in a low, but decisive voice, bending down to help her.

Only when he picked Elena up from the ground he noticed that she was trying not to laugh.

"I'm sorry. I don't even know why this made me laugh," she said, almost absently draping one arm around his neck, the touch of her hand on his bare shoulder sending sudden shock-waves of heat through his body. "Just call me Elena," she added and only then Damon realized what had made her laugh.

"Of- of course," he stammered, giving her a brief smile and scolding himself inwardly for not coming up with anything better to say.

The situation was awkward enough even without him having troubles to speak. A story or an anecdote would certainly make her feel better and less aware of the fact that she was scantily clad in a soaking wet piece of garment while being carried by a half-dressed stranger.

"At least in the river it's not possible to get lost. This forest over there, they say if you stay in it after sunset, you'll be lost forever," Damon chattered on, grimly impressed that he could simultaneously talk and scream at himself for saying such thoughtless things. So much for hoping to make her feel better.

Elena's eyes shifted to the forest and she seemed to ponder his words for a second with a pensive frown. Damon watched her, once again struck by how beautiful she was, also in a way he couldn't quite explain. It wasn't just her features that he found beautiful. It was as if every fibre of his body _knew_ that everything about her was beautiful.

"Damon?"

Damon blinked, snapping back into consciousness.

"Careful. If you trip, we'll no doubt ruin our only shirt," Elena said with a smile that made Damon grin so much he was sure she might start thinking he was going mad.

"I will be ca-"

Elena gasped when he almost tripped while saying that he'd make sure not to do just that.

Fortunately, Damon instinctively pulled Elena closer and with Elena holding onto him even tighter, he managed to maintain his balance and after a couple of unsteady steps they continued as before.

"I'm sorry," Damon murmured with an apologetic grimace.

Elena shrugged, a smile returning to her face and he found it exhilarating that she didn't seem to feel awkward and uncomfortable anymore. "We survived it," she said with a trace of humor in her voice.

Damon smiled back at her. There was something in her eyes that felt endlessly familiar and he couldn't stop marveling at the impression.

"So you also don't remember how you found yourself in the water?" Elena asked after a pause, her eyes searching his face and the proximity of her lips hovering over his cheek made Damon's heart hammer in his chest, the sound reverberating in his ears.

"No, I don't."

"It's a strange coincidence, isn't it?" Elena muttered with a sigh, her breath skimming across his skin.

Damon drew a breath, doubting for a few moments if he'd be able to breathe out, especially after Elena's next words.

"Your heart's beating so fast."

There it was, her hand over his heart and he was grateful there was no trees standing in their way, because he was certain he'd walk straight into one of them, his eyes drawn to her hand splayed over his bare chest.

"I'm sorry," Elena said nervously, as if she just realized she was acting strangely.

She hastily withdrew her hand and Damon half-considered stopping her, but that would require for him to drop her in the first place, so he settled for reassuring her that it was completely, absolutely alright and she seemed to find the zeal in his voice amusing.

"Where are we, exactly?" Elena asked after taking a longer look around.

"Mystic Falls, Virginia."

"Mystic Falls."

"Does it feel familiar?" Damon asked uncertainly.

Elena bit her lip. "No," she said with a shrug. But then the expression on her face brightened a little, her eyes returning to his face. She lowered her voice to a thoughtful whisper. "But you do."

xxxdelenaxxx

"I knew someone would be down here." Jeremy marched into the kitchen and gave Desmond a small smile. "I ran into three people in the hallway, one on the stairs and two in the parlor."

"I can't sleep," Desmond said in a low voice, looking up from the table, his hands resting on top of a white envelope placed carefully in front of him.

"No one can. Even though we've been through a few things before."

Jeremy poured himself a glass of juice and glancing at Desmond over his shoulder and noticing that he wasn't drinking or eating anything, he also poured a glass for him.

He placed the juice in front of Desmond who gave him a weak smile in return. "Thank you."

Jeremy sat down at the table. "Elena mentioned in her letter to me who you are..." he started cautiously after a moment of silence.

Desmond eyes shifted to him. He nodded sadly. "I thought I could... turn back time. In a way. Maybe. A little. But I ran out of all time instead."

"At least you've met," Jeremy pointed out.

"That's true," Desmond allowed, his voice grim. "Were you good friends?" He asked after a pause and then added in a strained, warm, broken tone that made Jeremy feel deeply sorry for him. He instinctively felt a connection with anyone who was genuinely grieving. "With my son?"

"Well, he annoyed the hell out of me," Jeremy replied, searching for something most sincere to say. "Even after I accepted the fact that my sister couldn't live without him." He smiled pensively, squinting into the distance. "But then one day I realized... he was always the first person I would think about calling if something happened, when I needed help, when anyone needed help. Because I knew that nothing could stop him. He'd always come and try to find a way out, try to come up with a solution." He looked back at Desmond and said in a low, firm voice. "He was someone we could always count on."

Desmond smiled and for a second sadness in his eyes was overpowered by pride. "Thank you for telling me that," he said quietly.

"So this is the moment when people in movies order the strongest drink in the bar."

Jeremy and Desmond's eyes were drawn toward the entrance where Bonnie appeared.

With a heavy sigh she placed the grimoire on the table and sat down across from Jeremy with Desmond to her left.

"What? You already realized Caroline was right about pretty much everything?" Jeremy asked, standing up to pour a drink for Bonnie.

"You mean everyone knew she was right?" Bonnie asked flatly with a resigned frown.

Jeremy stifled a smile. "Except for Caroline herself, probably."

Bonnie snorted. "Thanks," she said, when Jeremy placed a glass of orange juice in front of her.

"Have you finished reading?"

"No. When I got to the merging part I decided to take a break," Bonnie muttered, glaring at the grimoire. "If at least it was all written in a straightforward way. But no, riddles upon riddles, that's why it's taking so long to read all of it."

"The merging part?" Desmond echoed uncertainly.

"The good news is, Damon won't run into himself in the past," Bonnie said in a mockingly optimistic voice before continuing in a serious tone. "The bad news is, he'll _merge_ with himself and the practical result of that is that he'll only have his memories as they were in 1864."

"Could've been worse," Jeremy offered, but Bonnie shot him a look signaling he shouldn't try cheering her up, because it wasn't going to work. "What about Elena?"

"She didn't exist in 1864 at all, so she'll be herself with no memories at all. Oh, and apparently objects of any kind can't travel back in time, so their daylight rings in which we put vervain probably didn't survive the trip. Same with their clothes."

Jeremy seemed to ponder this for a second. "So when they meet they won't remember each other and they will be naked? This can't possibly go wrong, can it?"

Bonnie covered her face with her hands, stifling a humorless laugh. "This isn't funny. I feel terrible. It's all my fault."

"Come on, Bonnie. They knew it was a crazy idea," Jeremy said in a low voice, so warm and firm that Bonnie lowered her hands onto the grimoire and looked at him. "That was the only way. The only shred of hope. Besides... you don't look all that depressed," he pointed out with a cautious smile.

"I'm denial," Bonnie muttered, shifting her gaze to an unidentifiable point in space. "Grams says it's because deep down I believe this is all reversible."

Desmond smiled sadly. He half-wished he could be in denial himself, but instead, he felt searing pain in his chest getting stronger and stronger with every minute. Every few moments, a renewed realization that he was never going to see his son again would pierce through him like a cold blade. He hadn't even ever called him that... His son. How long it had even been? Three days? He'd known his son for three days. The remaining lifetime felt unbearable in comparison. He couldn't imagine a lifetime spent on thinking about what could have been.

"Did you get the keys?"

Bonnie's question shook Desmond out of his reverie and his eyes automatically drifted to Jeremy who was the addressee.

"No. I thought you might have," Jeremy said, squinting.

Bonnie shook her head. "Maybe Stefan did. He spent four months renovating that car, after all."

Car keys. Desmond slid his fingers off the white envelope and slowly pulled a set of keys out of it.

Bonnie widened her eyes at him. "How come you got the car?!"

"I think it's quite obvious," Jeremy said with a small smile.

"What's obvious?" Bonnie shifted her eyes between Jeremy and Desmond in confusion.

Jeremy frowned. "You don't know?"

"Don't know what?" Bonnie demanded, growing irritated.

"Elena and Damon didn't write anything about it in their letter to you?"

"Their letter to me?" Bonnie repeated in a wry voice, but Jeremy also noticed a glimpse of amusement in her eyes. "You mean this?" She pulled out a piece of paper from between the pages of the grimoire, unfolded it and lifted it for Jeremy and Desmond to see.

Jeremy bit back a chuckle. "This... speaks volumes," he said, regarding with a smile the page covered with drawings of hearts, feathers, sunglasses, flames, smiley faces with fangs and smiley faces with their fangs crossed out signed with a _'Thank You'_ and a big heart with Damon and Elena's names in it. "And they were in a hurry."

"I didn't get a letter either. Just these," Desmond said thoughtfully.

Bonnie snorted. "We can trade any time you want," she said, waving her letter in the air.

"These car keys count as a letter, trust me," Jeremy said with a wink.

Desmond smiled weakly.

Bonnie tilted her head backwards at the sound of footsteps.

"Shouldn't you go to bed? It's late," Enzo said, walking into the kitchen while putting his jacket on.

Bonnie arched an eyebrow. "And where are you going at this late hour?" She asked, turning around.

Enzo flashed her a crooked grin. "I have a date."

"With whom?" Jeremy asked with a dubious snort.

"With Freya."

"Makes sense. Only someone who was asleep for a millennium could agree to go on a date with you," Bonnie deadpanned.

Jeremy bit back a laugh.

Enzo ignored them. "As for you..." he said, narrowing his eyes at Desmond. "Ten in the morning will be good?"

Desmond blinked in puzzlement while Bonnie and Jeremy exchanged confused glances.

"You got car keys _and_ driving lessons," Enzo said with a smile, pointing to the camaro keys in Desmond's hand. "With me."

xxxdelenaxxx

Sneaking into the house unnoticed seemed like a nigh impossible endeavor, but somehow they managed it and Elena breathed out a sigh of relief when Damon sat her down on a bed and closed the door behind them.

She looked around the room, quickly guessing that it was Damon's. Taking in all the details, the furniture, the books on the nightstand she couldn't shake off the impression that it all felt oddly familiar even though she also knew for certain she'd never been here before.

"Elena, may I leave you here alone for a few minutes?" Damon asked, bending on one knee in front of her and checking if her foot had stopped bleeding. "I will go find Hazel and ask her to draw a bath for you. And I will bring you my mother's dresses so you'd have something dry to change into," he said with a timid smile, glancing up at her.

There was something breathtaking in the realization that she was really here. Down by the river, out in the clearing, in the bright sunlight she'd seemed like taken out of a fairy take, but now she was in his room, she was looking at him with her warm, curious, beautiful eyes and he could feel her hand in his. She was real.

"Thank you. But will it be alright with your mother?" Elena asked, shifting her eyes between his face and their hands clasped together in her lap.

"My mother..." Damon trailed off and drew a breath before adding in a stifled, sad voice. "She passed away seven years ago. As for the dresses, she wouldn't mind at all. She would offer them to you herself. She was the most kind-hearted and compassionate person."

Elena grimaced. "I'm sure she was. I'm so sorry that you lost her," she said earnestly, squeezing Damon's hand in hers.

Damon nodded quickly and Elena's hand flew to his face in an instinctive, reassuring gesture. But when his eyes darted to her, she withdrew her hand with an embarrassed smile. She looked away, but her eyes returned to his when he spoke in a murmuring whisper that sent shivers up her spine.

"Your hands are cold."

Elena inhaled slowly, holding Damon's gaze, feeling his thumb graze the backs of her fingers.

Sudden laughter coming from downstairs broke them both out of their reverie and they exchanged nervous smiles. Damon jumped to his feet.

"You will feel better after a hot bath," he said reassuringly.

"I feel quite alright," Elena replied without thinking and their eyes locked once again before Damon forced himself to look away.

He walked to the wardrobe to take dry clothes for himself. "I will speak to my father. You will stay here until we figure out where your family is."

"Thank you. But what if I don't have any family?" Elena asked with a frown, struck by the thought.

Of course she might've been a victim of some kind of a terrible accident, but she wasn't sure how probable it was that she had a happy, caring family if she'd found herself alone and unclad in the water, apparently far away from home, because had she been living in the neighborhood Damon would've recognized her.

"Then you will stay here forever," Damon blurted out before amending quickly. "If you would like."

Elena didn't say anything, only gave him a faint smile, but the warm glow in her eyes made him dare to hope that she might.

And he couldn't recall feeling that exhilarated by any thought ever before.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Bad news?" Enzo asked, watching Freya's facial expression change after she'd received a text message.

"Good news and bad news, all rolled into one, I guess," Freya said carefully, putting her phone away.

She looked at Enzo who was staring at her with unwavering intensity that could easily be interpreted as intrusive, but for some reason it kept making her smile.

Maybe because it seemed to be a mask and behind it, she could sense sincerity and not an unfamiliar kind of self-consciousness.

"Enjoy the good, ignore the bad," Enzo offered, pouring her another drink.

He glanced around the dimly lit place. The bar had been closed, but Freya had opened it with a flick of her hand, so he decided to contribute by playing the barman, which resulted in a series of improvised drinks that were yet to be named.

"My brother Elijah's coming back tomorrow," Freya said after a moment of silence, straightening up with a heavy sigh.

"I heard of him. Did you tell him Hope was alright?"

Freya smiled. "Yes, I did. Since I suspected from the start Klaus would only do it with a great delay." Freya's smile turned into a hesitant frown before she continued. "Elijah thinks he found a way to free Hayley. That's what he's been doing for the last several years. Trying to find a way to lift that curse."

"Hayley is... Hope's mother, right? As a side effect of one of Klaus' grand schemes she got turned into a wolf and now she can only see her daughter for one night each month. See? I'm all up to date," Enzo said with pretended smugness, smirking at her.

"It seems you are," Freya allowed with a small smile, squinting.

"So what's the problem? You don't like her? Don't want her to rejoin the family?"

"I highly doubt she'll want to rejoin. But that's not it. It's just... Elijah wants to meet with me, but he is asking me not to tell Klaus about it."

"Ah. So you have a loyalty dilemma," Enzo said, tilting his head to the side.

"I'm afraid it may spiral out of control into something more than that. If Elijah's planning on doing something Klaus won't like, then I'll be forced to choose a side and I'm not looking forward to that," Freya explained, propping her chin on her hand.

"Call your sister and form the third alliance. You'll have the majority." Enzo raised his glass to his lips.

Freya snorted mirthlessly. "I wish it was that easy."

"So side with the one you like better."

She gave Enzo a bittersweet smile. "I love them both the same."

"So choose the one who will be right."

Taking a sip from her drink Freya slowly shook her head. "I was asleep for a thousand years, but even with my short life experience I know how hard it is to figure out who is right."

"I was locked up in cell for seventy years," Enzo said, noticing a brief, startled look that flitted across Freya's face. "So I had a lot of time to think about, well, everything and I came to the conclusion that it's actually very easy to decide what's wrong and what's right." He smiled pensively. "It's just that sometimes we can't or don't want to do the right thing."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Damon, where have you been?" Stefan widened his eyes at Damon, giving him an incredulous look and glancing over his shoulder toward the room where their father's and several other voices were coming from. "You should've been back three hours ago. Father is furious. Did you bring back the letters? Did Mr. Fell sign?"

The letters. Damon squeezed his eyes shut. He completely forgot all about that. He'd gone to Mr. Fell first, but then he had gone to town to the apothecary to get the medicine for Mrs. Peterson. Then he'd planned on taking the shortcut home and arriving early enough for Giuseppe not to realize he'd taken a side trip. But now that he couldn't remember what had happened later at all, he also didn't know what had happened to either the documents or the medicine bottle. Maybe they had got lost in the water, but that was as good a guess as any.

"He did but I don't have them," Damon said with a grimace. "I lost them."

"What do you mean-" Stefan started, perplexed, but Damon cut him off.

"Can you help me carry the chest with mother's dresses down from the attic?"

Stefan blinked. "What? Why? What are you talking about? There's no time for such things. Father is angry! We need to go to him and explain what happened. Everybody is there, waiting. We need to come up with some kind of a-"

Damon grabbed Stefan by the shoulder and walked them a few steps further away from the corridor leading to the dining room.

"There's a girl upstairs," Damon started to explain in a rushed whisper. "I found her in the river. I need some clothes for her. "

"You found a girl. In the river," Stefan repeated in a blank tone, for a second forgetting about their father and beginning to worry that something was wrong with his brother. "Are you feeling alright?"

Damon shook his head with a huff. "I don't have time for a longer discussion right now. Are you going to help me with the trunk or not?"

Stefan stared at him in bewilderment. He craned his neck to take another look toward the dining room where their father and his guests were waiting.

He exhaled hastily. "I hope you know what you're doing, because we're getting disowned for this. If father doesn't collect all the signatures today, the meeting-"

"Thank you, brother," Damon interrupted him with a smile, patting him on the shoulder and turning toward the stairs.

xxxdelenaxxx

" _It seems it's true what they say that mother always knows best. You were right about Damon and I. You knew it'd work out between us before anyone did, before we did._

 _The day I died, earlier that day, I had a choice to make and I was thinking about how good it'd be to ask my mom for advice. But I had no mom to ask._

 _It doesn't matter now, because in the end everything worked out alright and I'm happy now, but I just wanted to tell you what I realized..._

 _Mom, had I asked you that day for advice, I wouldn't have died._

 _Elena"_

Tears burning her eyes, Isobel continued staring at the letter that she'd read so many times she already knew it by heart. She couldn't look away from the word _'Mom'_ so purposefully, so carefully calligraphed it was breaking her heart, making her want to cry out. But she never learned how to scream.

She'd been watching in helpless silence her baby daughter being taken away from her. And now she was sitting quietly on the bed in the dimly lit room, just looking at the words, tracing the black letters with her fingertips. But something was different now.

Now she didn't feel all alone in the scary, unfriendly world. She wasn't a stranded, abandoned teenager anymore.

With a broken smile, Isobel quickly wiped the tears off her face.

Now she was reading a letter from someone who cared about her. She was a reading a letter from her daughter.

Now she was a Mom.

Grabbing a box of tissues, Isobel dried her tears and smiled mirthlessly at the post scriptum in Damon's handwriting that consisted of a phone number and a note:

" _Brace yourself for rude voice mail."_

Reaching out for Damon's phone, Isobel slowly picked all the digits and then brought the phone to her ear.

Her heart clenched at the sound of a familiar voice.

" _If you're Damon or Jeremy, leave a message. If you're someone else, hang up and text me the name, so I'll know which one of them to kill for giving you this number."_

A ghost of a pensive smile flitted across her face and Isobel opened her mouth, the words _"Hello Ric"_ on the tip of her tongue, but after a second she changed her mind, ended the connection and put the phone away.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I may not even ask you for the simplest thing!" Giuseppe bellowed, waving his hand dismissively at Stefan who tried to interfere. "How difficult it was to bring back a signed piece of paper from a neighbor?"

"I'm sorry, father," Damon said in a low voice. "I know it is an inconvenience, but I could just take another copy-"

"I don't have another copy! It will need to be written anew."

"So let me write it-"

"We don't have time for that," Giuseppe said angrily, looking around the room with a sigh.

"It seems we will have to postpone the meeting," George Lockwood said, standing up.

"I apologize for this, George," Giuseppe said through his teeth, giving Damon a glare. "And I still don't know where have you been? You have been gone for hours!"

"I'm sorry for the intrusion, but..."

Everyone's eyes darted toward the door and Stefan noticed Giuseppe's face pale at the sight.

Elena was standing in the doorway, feeling a little intimidated by the large gathering in front of her, but when after walking downstairs she'd overheard the conversation she couldn't stop herself from walking in and explaining what had happened.

"I just wanted to explain... Damon's late arrival was caused by me. He rescued me from drowning and then carried me here, because I couldn't walk and I also didn't remember how I'd fallen into the river in the first place. I didn't even have a chance to thank him yet," she added and after looking around the room her gaze rested on Damon and she smiled so brightly that Damon was sure the sun itself didn't radiate with that much warmth.

He stared at Elena, caught off guard by her sudden appearance and rendered speechless by her words and by how beautiful she looked in his mother's favorite apricot dress, her damp hair falling over her shoulders in smooth, dark brown tresses.

The way in which their eyes locked and simultaneously lit up didn't escape Stefan's attention and he smiled inwardly at the thought he'd finally have a valid reason to tease his brother about being smitten with someone. He was glad that the situation got cleared up so quickly, even though he was certain once all the guests were gone, their father would demand more than a brief explanation, no matter how genuine or impressive. Not to mention that Giuseppe still looked flabbergasted because of the dress and was yet to say anything.

Fortunately, everyone else seemed to be put in a good mood by the turn of events.

Jonathan Gilbert walked up to Damon and tapped him on the shoulder. "Sounds like we should make a toast to a hero instead of scolding the boy for negligence and delay."

Winston Forbes nodded with a laugh. "I will drink to that!"

xxxdelenaxxx

"I guess I should rather be going back to New Orleans," Freya said, closing the car door behind her.

"In the middle of the night?" Enzo asked with a lop-sided smile, walking around the car to stand in front of her.

Freya smiled. "It's technically early morning."

Enzo was about to jokingly say he was just thinking about moving to New Orleans, but then he noticed a frown on Freya's face and turned around to see what she was looking at.

"What is it?" He asked, not really seeing anything out of the ordinary.

But apparently Freya was still seeing something, because without a word, she quickly walked toward the place where the time travel spell had been performed.

Following her, Enzo kept straining his eyes to see what she was seeing, but he wasn't able to notice anything until they were both within the mandala, the outline of it still visible on the ground.

"What is that?" Enzo repeated, but now his question was referring to something he was also able to see.

Freya lifted her hand and lightly touched what looked like an extremely thin and delicate gold thread stretching from the ground all the way into the sky.

She shook her head. "I have no idea."


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for your wonderful reviews! :):):)

& I just wanted to let you know that I did some serious brainstorming last week and the result is that I have the rest of the story figured out :) Including the epilogue ;) But since it's all in my head and not in the form of any detailed outline, I still can't say how many chapters exactly we have left. (Probably about 10, but don't quote me on this ;)

 **Chapter 22**

"So?" Enzo asked, glancing at his watch.

Freya had decided to wait until morning to show Bonnie the mysterious golden thread, which was probably a good idea. Had she shown it to Bonnie right away, they would've most likely spent the entire night staring at it without coming to any useful conclusions.

"I'm thinking," Bonnie said through her teeth, shooting Enzo a glare.

"No offense, but thinking isn't going to help," Freya pointed out with a small smile. "If the grimoire says nothing about this-"

"I haven't finished the grimoire yet," Bonnie cut in with a sigh. "But I'm pretty sure I've read everything related to performing the spell and there was nothing in there about a thread of any kind being left behind or appearing as a side effect."

Tilting her head to the side, Freya slowly looked the thread up and down once again. "It definitely seems like some kind of a connection."

"There shouldn't be any connection," Bonnie said with a huff. "We sent them back in time. They vanished from here and reappeared in 1864. Everything that happened while we were performing the spell, happened exactly the way it was described in the grimoire, so I think we have every reason to be sure it worked just fine. Besides," she continued with a frown. "It just doesn't make sense for this thread to be here in the context of the time travel spell being meant to allow people to disappear without a trace. That's the whole point of this spell! To disappear from the present. Without a trace."

"Maybe," Enzo spoke up after a longer moment of silence. "It's an emotional connection. Maybe they just miss us so much it's a physical representation of their nostalgia." He looked between Freya who was smirking and Bonnie who was glaring at him. "I just wanted to contribute to the discussion."

"Well, you didn't," Bonnie replied flatly.

Freya smiled. "You're right about one thing," she said, lightly touching the thread with her fingers. "Do you see this pattern here? The structure? The grains of light? It's a physical connection." She narrowed her eyes at the sparkling thread. "Somehow."

"But how can it be a physical connection?" Bonnie asked with a grimace of exasperation, confused and worried that perhaps something had gone wrong with the spell, after all, and that Damon and Elena might have got lost in between time and space. "They are gone. And this spell was supposed to be irreversible," she added as an afterthought, but then her head snapped into Freya's direction. "But if there's a connection-"

"I think it's too early to hope we could bring them back," Freya said with a cautious smile. "And even if we could bring them back, Kai's spell is still in effect. If Damon came back-"

"I know," Bonnie interrupted her in a hushed voice. "I just..."

"Can't stop having hope," Freya finished for her.

Bonnie smiled brokenly. "I guess. And magical threads of unknown origins aren't helping with accepting the reality."

"Maybe-" Enzo started, but Bonnie cut him off.

"No more theories for today. Grams and I have to put together a spell to integrate all the formerly dead people into the society."

"Can't Klaus just compel everyone in town?" Freya suggested with a smile.

"The problem is, it's not just people in town. Caroline's mom was a sheriff. Her death wasn't just local news. Same with almost everyone else. Elena and Jeremy have some relatives in Denver. They knew their parents died. And so on. And so forth," Bonnie said with a sigh.

"I see," Freya nodded with a smile. "Let me know if you need any help."

"Same with me," Enzo joined in. "If you need any help with any spell, just ask."

"If you want to help just make sure Damon's dad won't crash the camaro," Bonnie muttered, squinting. "That will be enough, thanks."

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena woke up so early in the morning the house seemed completely quiet, but she was so impatient for the day to start, that she quickly slipped out of the bed and tiptoed to the window to let the sunlight and the warm breeze in.

Leaning over the window sill, her eyes lit up in a smile at the sight of Damon who must've gotten up even earlier than her. He was already outside and her heart skipped a beat when she noticed that he was picking roses from a flowerbed.

Hastily stepping back into the room, Elena washed herself and got dressed as fast as she could and quietly left the room, softly closing the door behind her and running down the stairs almost soundlessly.

"Elena? And here we were worried about waking you up!" Stefan exclaimed at the sight of her and Elena swirled around, startled a little by being stopped on her way to the door.

"Stefan! Good morning," she greeted him with a smile. "And I thought everyone was still asleep, the house was so quiet."

Stefan's expression turned grim, if only for a moment. "Father doesn't like noise."

Elena bit her lip. "I see."

"Are you in a hurry?" Stefan asked, glancing toward the door, because Elena's eyes seemed to dart in that direction every second or two.

She blushed a little. "No!... I mean... I was- I was wondering... Is Damon still outside? I think I saw him..."

Stefan stifled a smile, very much amused by the adorably unsuccessful way in which Elena tried to make the question sound indifferent and casual.

"He should be back shortly. I can show you the garden in the meantime," he offered.

Elena blinked, her smile fading a little. "Back? Did he go somewhere?"

"Yes, he went to... He went to visit someone. It's what he does every Sunday morning. But he will be back soon," Stefan reassured her, although probably not well enough, because Elena's cheerful demeanor turned somber at an instant.

"I see," she said a little shakily, trying to smile, but not quite succeeding and Stefan tried to figure out if he'd said something wrong. "I'm sorry. I think I will just take a walk by myself, if that's alright," she added and then rushed past Stefan so quickly he didn't have a chance to stop her.

Stefan stood for a few moments motionlessly, pondering the conversation until a likely explanation for Elena's behavior dawned on him and he squeezed his eyes shut with a grimace.

He just hoped Damon wouldn't have much trouble clearing up this apparent misunderstanding.

xxxdelenaxxx

Sliding an unopened envelope into his pocket, Stefan got up from his chair with a resigned sigh and went to open the door.

He was half-hoping for everyone to just forget about him for one day, but of course with so many people in the house such a scenario was highly unlikely. Not to mention that he should probably take care of Lily. Perhaps it was even her. She had always liked getting up very early.

"Hi."

Stefan blinked, confused for a second when after opening the door he didn't see anyone.

"My Dad's asking if you'd like to spend today with us," Hope said with a smile.

"Clever," Stefan muttered more to himself than to Hope and then added in a louder voice. "I'm sorry, but I think I'm going to spend today with my mother."

"Your Mom can go with us too," Hope replied immediately, as if she'd expected the objection.

"That's very kind, but-"

"We're methodically prepared for every excuse, so you might want to reconsider whatever it was that you were going to say," Klaus warned him, appearing next to Hope with an impish smile on his face.

Hope giggled in agreement.

"Really? You don't have anything better to do today?" Stefan asked with a frown.

The faintest grimace of confusion flitted across Klaus' face, because there was something in Stefan's expression that made the question sound as if it was more than just a wry comment.

Klaus raised his eyebrows. "Why? Should I have something better to do today?" He asked, still smiling.

Stefan snorted humorlessly. "If you don't mind, I'm going to stick to my personal tradition of not being the messenger when it comes to these things," he said with a brief, thin smile, walking out of his room. "I'll go see what Lily's up to and meet you downstairs."

xxxdelenaxxx

After hearing from Stefan upon his return what had happened, Damon started searching for Elena everywhere around the house, until he finally found her wandering alone in the garden.

"Good morning, Elena," he said in a low voice, trying not to startle her.

But she seemed caught off guard by his sudden appearance anyway.

"Damon!" Elena turned around so abruptly that the quick gesture of her wiping off her eyes didn't escape his attention.

"Elena-" Damon murmured with a worried frown, but she cut him off.

"I didn't hear your approach. It's such a beautiful garden. It's easy to get lost in it. Well, not in it, but in looking at it-"

"Elena," Damon interrupted her with a small smile and reached out for her hand that was trembling slightly, just like her voice.

Elena's eyes darted up to his face and she looked almost upset, but instead of letting go of her hand, he lowered his head and pressed a feather-light kiss to it.

"I'm sorry I was gone when you came downstairs. I didn't think you'd be awake so early, especially after such a trying day," he said, still holding her hand in his. "If I knew-"

"You don't have to apologize," Elena interrupted him a little nervously, not sure if she should be letting her hand rest in his, but not really feeling like snatching her hand free just yet. "You went to visit someone. I understand."

The last word came out so strained that she wasn't really surprised that Damon smiled weakly at her attempt to sound like she didn't care.

"Would you like to meet her?"

Elena blinked, taken aback by the proposition. "No, thank you," she snapped, feeling very unpleasant cold shivers run up her spine, even as she was beginning to realize she was behaving in an entirely ludicrous way.

What right did she have to be upset? They'd met yesterday, but his life hadn't started yesterday. He'd saved her life just like he would've in case of anyone else under the same circumstances. And yet she couldn't get rid of that strange sense of... avarice in regard to him.

All of these confusing thoughts managed to distract Elena from paying too much attention to the fact that her hand was still clasped in Damon's and that he was looking at her in a way that wasn't consistent with what he seemed to be saying.

"I really don't want to go see anyone," Elena protested when Damon started leading her outside of the garden.

"It's not far," was Damon's only reply and Elena gritted her teeth, not looking forward to the meeting at all.

Then again it probably served her right. Maybe if she saw with her own eyes that girl he'd gone to visit, it'd make more sense to her. Because right now it made no sense whatsoever. It made no sense that he could feel anything for someone else-

Elena frowned, hardly aware of the beautiful, wildly green landscape surrounding her as she was becoming more and more perplexed by her own thoughts. He barely knew her. She barely knew him. And yet...

She glanced at their entwined hands and it was both a heartwarming and a grating feeling that their hands clasped together looked like a breathtaking mystery she just couldn't solve.

Realizing they had stopped walking, Elena raised her gaze and her eyes widened at the sight of flowers she'd earlier seen Damon gather.

The flowers were lying on a grave:

 _Lilian Elizabeth Salvatore, 1818 - 1857_

xxxdelenaxxx

"Jeremy's taking us on a tour around Mystic Falls, so we could see what's changed. Would you like to go with us?" Miranda asked, stopping Isobel on her way across the parlor.

Absently scanning the room and barely acknowledging John and Grayson standing nearby, Isobel shook her head. "Thank you, but I have different plans for today."

"If you need a ride, you can hop right into the blue car outside," Enzo said with a wink, peering into the parlor from the hallway.

"Actually, it does sound like a good idea," Isobel decided after a moment of consideration.

John rolled his eyes and shrugged when he noticed Miranda giving him a scolding look.

"Can I get a ride too?" Jenna asked matter-of-factly, marching into the room and giving Miranda a brief smile before turning to Enzo.

"Of course!" Enzo said, extending his arms in a welcoming gesture. "I'm beginning to really like my life here."

"Wait, Jenna. You aren't going with us?" Miranda asked with a frown.

With a sigh, Jenna turned around. "Sorry, sis, but I'd rather spend the day with a hot guy I don't know than him," she said in a low, flat voice, pointing her finger at John.

"Jenna-" Miranda tried, but Jenna waved her hand at her in a hushing gesture.

"I'll see you in the evening," she said with a smile.

"Just be careful," Jeremy cut in, glancing toward the corridor where Enzo was waiting.

"Why?" Jenna asked suspiciously, squinting.

Jeremy shrugged. "He tried to kill me once. Not unlike most people, but still."

"Did it ever cross your mind it may be you, not them?" Sarah offered in a mockingly thoughtful voice and Jeremy turned around and greeted her with a happy smile.

"It did, more than once," he said in a matching tone. They both laughed. "Are you sure you want to leave today?" He asked, glancing at Zach and Gail who followed Sarah into the room.

She nodded. "It's best if we spend some time alone right away. Just the three of us. I'll be in touch. I'll call once we get home," she added with an uncertain smile, the word 'home' hanging between her and Jeremy, evoking a similar sense of melancholy in both of them.

The conversation they'd had last night not enough to clarify all the confusing feelings accompanying their decision to spend some time away from each other, but without breaking up.

There had been many moments during the last few days when they had thought about calling it quits, but it wasn't until the last night when they actually had the time to talk that they'd realized it wasn't what they wanted. Not yet, at least. And that strange, lingering sense of impeding regret had made them decide to give each other some time to think. And then, maybe, give themselves another chance, now without any sad secrets between them.

"Can I help you with packing the car?" Jeremy asked.

"No, no, we're all set," Sarah replied quickly.

"Stefan agreed to go with us!" Hope announced to everyone, hopping into the room.

"Great. It means Bonnie and her Grandma will have the house to themselves. Speaking of," Jeremy added with a smile, his eyes shifting to Bonnie who had just walked in.

"That's great indeed. I can't wait to brew some tea and enjoy the afternoon contemplating all the one hundred and one ways in which Katherine's going to make Damon and Elena suffer."

"Cheer up, Bonnie," Jeremy said encouragingly. "They're anything if not resourceful. Besides, maybe the letters survived the trip, so they'll know what to watch out for."

"Right," Bonnie said in a grim voice, crossing her arms over her chest. "Their memories and clothes got wiped out on the way there, but their shoes must've made it through."

"You're beginning to sound like Caroline," Jeremy pointed out with a smirk and then added, changing the subject. "I was meaning to tell you. My parents and I can't see that thread outside."

"I can't see it either," Sarah added.

Bonnie leaned forward in her chair, shifting her eyes between them.

"It seems only witches can see it."

Hope's eyes lit up in interest, but before she had a chance to join the conversation, Klaus and Stefan walked into the room.

"Guess that gives us more time to figure out what it is," Bonnie allowed after a pause. "It wouldn't be good if everyone could see it."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Damon, I'm so sorry."

Elena shook her head with a grimace, glancing over her shoulder at the cemetery they'd just left. She didn't really know what to say, especially that the more she thought about it, the more embarrassing it seemed to her that she'd got that upset in the first place.

"Elena, you don't have anything to apologize for," Damon reassured her, turning toward her when she stopped in her tracks.

"No, I do. It was absurd of me to get upset, but I was just so worried..." She trailed off, but the light in Damon's eyes and the way in which he was looking at her, listening to her so attentively as if her every word was the most important thing he'd ever hear, made her continue. "I was worried there was someone you liked," she admitted hastily in a hushed voice, holding his gaze, holding her breath, waiting for him to speak.

He was looking at her unblinkingly, without a smile, which was enough to mislead her into thinking that he was making a confession that was devastating to her.

"There _is_ someone I like."

But then a glimpse of warm mischief in his eyes turned the bitter, cold feeling into something akin to frantic exhilaration when he clarified:

"You."

xxxdelenaxxx

"So where are we going?" Stefan asked, draping his arm over the side of the red Ferrari Klaus had rented at Hope's request.

"We're going to the movies to see Kung Fu Panda 3," Hope said, leaning in her car seat at the back where she was sitting next to Lily who was yet to say anything at all.

Stefan wasn't sure if he was more worried or relieved that his mother hadn't opposed to him taking her along on this rather bizarre road trip, but either way, it meant he could keep an eye on her and that was all that mattered for now.

"Thank you, but... me and my mom haven't seen part 2. Or part 1, so..." Stefan said, giving Hope a small smile over his shoulder before turning his gaze back to the road, his expression becoming still and grim again.

Lily's mouth twitched, Stefan's casual way of pronouncing the word _'mom'_ both calming and oddly hurtful. She squinted into the distance with a frown. Kai taking all of her powers away didn't make her human and yet something was happening within her since yesterday, that was making her feel more like someone she hadn't been for a long time, someone she barely remembered.

Hope shifted her eyes between Lily and Stefan. "That's alright," she said in an utterly serious and very reassuring tone that made Klaus stifle a laugh.

Stefan glanced at him, both surprised and yet not really at seeing him like that. Although after everything that had happened, he should know that everything was possible and that everyone could change. Glancing over his shoulder he looked at Lily who turned her attention from the landscape to him, but he still wasn't sure what to make of her demeanor. For a second yesterday she'd seemed genuinely moved by Damon's disappearance, but then she hadn't spoken to him at all, so he wasn't sure what she'd been thinking.

"If you won't understand something, just ask me during the movie and I'll explain it to you really quietly," Hope said, lowering her voice to a whisper to demonstrate her ability to talk without disturbing other people in the theater.

Stefan's mouth twitched into a smile. "That's very nice of you, thank you."

Hope smiled, considering the matter settled. "What did Damon and Elena write to you?" She asked after a pause.

A tremor ran through Lily and she clenched her jaw and blinked rapidly in order to retain her composure. Her hand automatically smoothed over the pocket in her jacket where she'd put the letter she'd received.

"I don't know," Stefan replied with a thoughtful frown. "I haven't read it yet."

Hope widened her eyes at him, astonished. "How come?"

"Even I read mine," Klaus cut in to distract Hope from insisting on hearing Stefan's explanation since it seemed he'd rather not talk about this.

Stefan's eyes shifted to him. "They wrote _you_ a letter?"

"Yes!" Hope replied, apparently amused by the content she already knew. "Dad? Can I read your letter? It's so funny."

"Is it?" Stefan acknowledged skeptically.

"Yes," Hope insisted and after searching her Barbie purse for a second, she pulled two small envelopes out of it. "I can read mine too," she said, opening the first letter. "I'll read Dad' letter first and mine second," she explained before proceeding to reading out loud:

" _We got one spare envelope, so here you go. Greetings from soon-to-be 1864!_

 _D &E._

 _PS. We're really hoping you were in Indonesia at the time._ "

Hope tilted her head backwards and laughed and Stefan was glad she did, although he wasn't sure what she was finding so amusing about the letter, because he was certain it wasn't the actual reason why the letter was indeed funny, if only in a rather morbid way.

"Their attitude toward this whole thing will never cease to amaze me," Stefan muttered.

"If that will make you feel better, in 1864 I was in Spain."

"How far from the docks?" Stefan asked flatly and Klaus snorted.

"Do you want to hear my letter?" Hope inquired and after being prompted to go ahead, she started reading the letter Damon and Elena had written to her:

" _Dear Hope,_

 _We're going to miss you very much. We're so glad we got to meet you and the awesome time we spent together will always be in our hearts. Be always as happy as you are and follow your dreams. With your beautiful heart and curious mind, no matter what path you choose, whether you're going to grow up to be a queen, a treasure hunter or an artist, we're sure you're going to make the world brighter. We wish you a wonderful life._

 _With love,_

 _Damon & Elena."_

After finishing reading the letter, Hope continued looking at it for a longer while before lowering it onto her lap with a sigh. "I miss Damon and Elena," she said with a pout. "Dad, maybe Aunt Freya could help Bonnie and her Grandma and Enzo find a spell to bring Damon and Elena back?"

Stefan smiled weakly at how quickly Hope learned all the names and was even able to keep track of who was a witch.

"I'm afraid there's no such spell, sweetheart," Klaus said cautiously, glancing at her in the mirror. "And even if there was, it wouldn't help with the reason why they had to leave in the first place."

Leaning slightly against the side of the car, Lily looked at Stefan's hand draped over the car door, his entire form so still that his thumb and forefinger brushing against each other in a nervous gesture made his hand look as if it didn't belong to him.

She stared at his hand, remembering when she'd first noticed the tick. Only that now the reason behind it wasn't fear.

"But we'd bring them back if we could, right, Dad?" Hope asked, leaning forward in her seat and craning her neck to look at Klaus. "If it was safe for them to come back and if we could help them to come back, we would, right?"

Klaus wasn't sure if it was earnestness in Hope's voice or just a gust of wind or perhaps the realization that he was making a promise he'd have to keep, no matter what, if it ever came to it, that made him give his daughter the obvious, reassuring confirmation with the slightest delay.

xxxdelenaxxx

By the time the sun began to set, Damon had told Elena all about his life in Mystic Falls and they were together trying to figure out where she could be from, but no town names he provided her with sounded familiar. Elena felt a little awkward in the dress she was wearing, but they weren't sure if it could be considered a clue of any kind. There was also the strange coincidence of Damon not remembering how he'd gotten in the water yesterday, but they weren't able to make much of it. So after a while, they started talking about other things. Damon was picking different flowers for her and Elena was trying to remember which ones she liked best. They talked about books and Elena found unexpected consolation in the fact that she seemed to recognize some of the titles, although she wasn't able to tell whether she'd read them or not.

There was something very pleasurable and very strange about just walking across a meadow hand in hand, talking, but Elena wondered, if it was her lack of memories or something else that made her feel like she wasn't supposed to be just enjoying the moment, that she should've been on alert instead, ready for something bad to happen.

But it seemed so entirely impossible for anything bad to happen right now.

"I think I could like my life if it was like this," she said quietly, raising her hand to tuck a few strands of hair behind her ear.

"It could be like that," Damon reassured her with a smile that she returned, but besides warm amusement there was also a shadow of sad resignation in her eyes.

"You said there's a war closing in on everyone. I don't think anyone can hope for a very peaceful life under the circumstances."

"No, not for a peaceful life in that sense," Damon agreed, adjusting his hold on Elena's hand, the nigh unconscious gesture eliciting a brief smile from her every time. "But in the sense of having someone in your life who will always protect you and take care of you."

"Is this a general sentiment or do you have someone particular in mind?" Elena asked with a faint smile, stopping in her tracks and stepping in front of Damon.

He looked at her, for a second unable to formulate a reply, because his mind was reeling from a sudden, odd, intoxicating realization that he couldn't understand how he'd lived before she'd appeared in his life.

Elena raised her eyebrows, amused by apparently having rendered him speechless with her playful question, but then he breath caught in her throat when Damon reached out to brush a lock of hair off her forehead. He slowly tucked it behind her ear.

"It's so strange," he started, his voice barely audible, lacking melody but pulsating with warmth that drew her in like a flame that couldn't burn, that was only light, only a road sign showing a way home. "When I look at you... I feel like... like I would like to see you soar above, roam free to the furthest corners of the world and at the same time..." His hand lightly slid down her cheek and her arm until he clasped her hand in his very tightly. "At the same time I would like to always hold you hand and never let you go, not even for a moment." He shook his head with a self-deprecating grimace. "I'm sorry. I'm making no sense."

His eyes dropped to their intertwined hands and his heart increased rapidly when he noticed Elena's thumb graze the back of his hand back and forth.

"Would it make sense," she whispered in a tone as quiet as his and his eyes slowly made their way back to her face. "If I said that it's actually exactly how I feel?" She gave him a sheepish smile that he returned. "I'm here, holding your hand and yet it feels like soaring above and roaming the world, all the same."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Wait. Aren't we going into town?" Jenna asked with a confused frown, glancing over her shoulder at the 'Welcome to Mystic Falls' sign they were leaving behind.

"Bonnie said it's better for you to keep a low profile until you're magically made officially alive again," Enzo explained, flashing her a smile.

Jenna tossed her head against the headrest with a sigh. "Great. Could we stop somewhere for breakfast then? I thought I'd go to the Grill, but-"

"Just a heads-up, Damon and Elena drove this very camaro into it and blew the place up into pieces, so the new owners might not be serving your favorite dishes there anymore." Jenna widened her eyes at Enzo. "You don't need any lessons. How is that?" Enzo asked, turning his attention to Desmond who was holding the steering wheel very firmly and with both hands, which might've been the only indication of him being a beginner.

"I watched Damon drive for a few hours when we went to Durham," Desmond explained in a low voice. "It's even less difficult than it looked."

"But perhaps you could brief us all on theory," Isobel pointed out, propping her elbow on the side of the car and looking into her purse at the muffled sound coming out if it. "We've been off the roads for several years."

"I'm not under the impression anything has terribly changed in the meantime," Jenna said with a wry smile. "Other than Klaus being everyone's best friend, of course. And Damon and Elena. And people thinking they _just_ invented a selfie."

"Theory?" Enzo echoed a little a baffled, turning in his seat to look at Isobel who was sitting behind him. "There's any theory to driving?"

Jenna narrowed her eyes at him. "Let me guess. You compelled yourself a driving license."

"I'm a busy man," Enzo said with a shrug. "Is that Damon's phone?" He asked, recognizing the ring and shifting his eyes from Jenna to Isobel.

Slightly moving her fingers so they covered the phone screen so that Jenna who was sitting next to her couldn't see the caller's name, Isobel rejected the call and slipped the phone back into her purse.

"Perks of being the non-hostile mother-in-law," Isobel replied flippantly.

"Miranda wasn't hostile either," Jenna pointed out. "Just confused. At least until Jeremy painted an idyllic picture of one true love for her and now I bet she's one of Damon's greatest fans."

"He did? That's nice," Enzo observed with a smile, turning in his seat, so he could see everyone in the car without moving his head much. "It looks like it was a good decision not to kill him."

"Yeah, he mentioned that," Jenna muttered, squinting.

The phone in Isobel's purse started ringing again.

"Let me pick up," Enzo offered helpfully. "Whoever it is, I'll make sure they won't call again," he said with a wink.

"It's fine, thank you," Isobel said with a smile, but there was decisiveness in her eyes that made Enzo realize she wasn't picking up for a reason. "I'll deal with that later."

"You don't happen to have Ric's new phone number, do you?"

Isobel waited a second before shifting her eyes to Jenna, only to realize that the question was directed at Enzo.

"Why would I have his phone number?" Enzo snorted. "The guy bored me to tears. Let's take this exit," he said, gesturing for Desmond to make a turn. "There's probably no signal over there anyway," he added offhandedly.

"No signal over _where_?" Jenna asked suspiciously. "Stefan said you haven't heard from him in five years."

"I haven't heard from him in five years," Enzo confirmed. "Or even longer than that. In fact, I don't think he's ever called me. But can we change the subject?" He asked, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Isobel, what's your favorite food?"

"You mean the kind humans eat?" She sighed. "To be quite honest I don't remember."

Enzo tilted his head toward her with an amused smirk. "Come on. You must remember. Let's turn into this street and then turn right at the end of the road," he added and Desmond nodded slowly, following the instructions.

"Can we finish the Ric conversation first?" Jenna scowled.

"We already did," Enzo replied and she rolled her eyes. "Let's stop here," he said, leaning forward and indicating a parking spot for Desmond.

"What's here?" Isobel asked, glancing at the _Garden Olive_ colorful sign.

Enzo shifted his eyes between her and Desmond with a wistful smile. "Damon and Elena's favorite restaurant."

xxxdelenaxxx

It was already dark when Damon and Elena went back to the house. Elena's hand laced through Damon's arm, their conversation and laughter were cut short when they were greeted by Giuseppe waiting for them on the porch.

"Are you aware what time it is?" He asked, walking toward them, his hands clasped behind his back. "You've been gone for an entire day! I was close to sending a search party after you!"

"I'm sorry, father," Damon said in a low voice. "We... lost track of time."

"Clearly! Where have you been? And what were you thinking, wandering around alone? That's irresponsible, unacceptable and inappropriate!"

"We were just taking a walk-" Elena argued gently.

"I'm not talking about what you were or weren't doing, child!" Giuseppe interrupted her in a rigid tone. "I'm talking about what people would say. I've never been the subject of gossip and I'm not going to become one now. You should at least have a sense to take a servant with you."

"We didn't think-" Damon started, but Giuseppe cut him off.

"Yes, that much is certain! But this is not the time to discuss that. You missed the supper, so you can proceed straight to your rooms. Good night. We will finish this conversation tomorrow," he said sternly and after abruptly turning around, walked back into the house.

Damon grimaced. "I'm sorry, Elena," he said dejectedly, turning toward her. "I shouldn't have put you in this position."

"It's alright," Elena said with a reassuring smile. "Your father had a right to get upset. We will apologize again tomorrow, explain that we didn't even notice for how long we've been gone. He will understand."

"I'm not sure about that."

"I'm sure he was only acting angry. He must've been worried something had happened to you, to us."

"I would never think of looking at it that way," Damon admitted, still not sounding convinced, but the smile she gave him made him smile too. "Regardless of that, I'm still very sorry that you had to suffer through a scolding on my behalf."

Elena narrowed her eyes at him in mock exasperation. "We're both equally guilty of this misdemeanor," she insisted and then held his gaze for a few more seconds before stepping toward the door. "I will see you tomorrow," she said with a smile and turned around.

Her hand on the doorknob, Elena realized she'd been holding her breath and straining her ears so hard she actually wasn't sure if Damon had replied anything at all. He seemed to be still standing in the middle of the porch and she could feel him follow her with his eyes.

"You know what, Damon?"

It was difficult to explain, but it felt as if he was making her turn around with his thoughts, thoughts Elena felt like she knew them, because they must've been the same as hers.

Damon didn't prompted her to speak, just looked at her intently with his eyes wide open, an uncertain yet hopeful look on his face, as if he was trying to decide if she was going to say something happy or sad.

"If we're going to feel guilty about something today anyway..."

Elena trailed off and only much later it occurred to Damon how ridiculous it was of him to actually wait for her to continue speaking, which made him realize what was happening only a mere second before her lips touched his.

Damon's eyes closed of their own accord and all he could feel, all there was in the entire world, all he was in that moment, was that kiss and Elena's soft palms on his cheeks.

He didn't move, didn't dare to move. If he moved, this moment could end and he wanted, he needed it to last forever. Their lips locked, it felt like neither of them had to breathe.

When Elena's lips finally left his, their eyes fluttered opened at the same time and Damon gazed into her eyes in exhilaration, in feverish amazement. It was the first day of his life.

She was his life.

"Good night, Damon," Elena whispered breathlessly and in a blur dashed back into the house before he had a chance to whisper back with a smile that only flitted across his face but burned through every inch of his body and soul inside out:

"Good night, Elena."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Thank you for a... fun day, I guess," Stefan said, glancing at Lily who was still sitting in the Klaus' car, apparently asleep, her head leaning against the headrest. "I couldn't have come up with a better way to grieve than watching cartoons and eating popcorn."

After squinting after Hope who had run somewhere very fast the moment he'd stopped the car in front of the boarding house, Klaus turned toward Stefan with a smirk.

"You're welcome. That's what friends are for."

"Right. You'd know, obviously. So..." Stefan looked away, wondering how he was going to wake Lily up without being too nice or too rude.

"They aren't dead, you know," Klaus observed in a suddenly very matter-of-fact tone of voice and Stefan's eyes darted back to him.

"That's an assumption, but yes, probably they aren't. At least not yet." He paused. "You were right, though."

"About what?" Klaus prompted, arching his eyebrows when a few moments had passed without Stefan continuing his train of thought.

Stefan frowned and was quiet for a few more seconds before speaking in a low, grievous voice. "That in the end we're always left indefinitely and utterly alone."

Klaus stifled a laugh and Stefan shot him a questioning look. "Out of all the deep, personal reflections I've shared with you that's the one you remember?"

"I'm glad you find humor in it. It probably means you changed your mind since then?"

Klaus' smile turned slightly wistful. "I'm getting there. You aren't?"

"I'm beginning to realize we always eventually arrive at the very place we most want to leave behind." Stefan drew a breath and then continued. "I set it all in motion. This is how it all started. I made my brother complete the transition, because... I was afraid of being alone. And here I am."

Nodding thoughtfully, Klaus looked away into the distance. "A tale of woe is a precious thing, so it's the last of my intentions to ruin yours, but let me tell you that I think you've got the idea of destiny all wrong."

"Have I?"

Klaus gave him an almost benevolent smile. "Our greatest fears don't chase after us. It's us who keep finding them, running into them everywhere, all the time. Until we decide to face them. Only confronting your fears can make them disappear."

Stefan was about to respond, but the conversation got interrupted by Hope who, after being gone for a couple of minutes, was now running back toward them, beaming and screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Daddy! Daddy! I'm a witch! I'm a witch!"

Klaus gave Hope such a completely confused look that Stefan couldn't help but smile a little, amused by the expression on Klaus' face, bafflement mixed with absolute but still primarily disbelieving dismay of the most hilarious kind. Stefan could imagine that was exactly how a parent whose child announced they were going to pursue the very career the parent loathed would react.

"What do you mean, sweetheart?" Klaus asked in a strained voice.

"There's a magical thread in the backyard! And only witches can see it!" Hope spoke in a rushed, excited voice, hardly able to catch her breath after running so fast. "And I just went to check it out and Daddy, guess what, I can see it!" She started bouncing up and down and hopping all around Klaus, before breaking into a run toward the boarding house. "I'm a witch! I'm a witch!"

Klaus stared after her in complete silence broken by Stefan who after a few moments cleared his throat.

"You were saying?"

Klaus shot him a look and Stefan bit back a smile.

xxxdelenaxxx

Shaking the snow off his boots, Alaric walked into the wooden cabin and slammed the door shut behind him. The wind was hurtling fistfuls of snow against small windows and as always, he found the toneless noise calming.

Pulling everything out of his pockets and dropping the items on the table, Alaric's attention was drawn to the screen of his phone.

One voice message.

Alaric shook his head with a wry snort. First Damon had called him without leaving any messages. Then when he'd tried calling him back he hadn't been answering all day and now he'd apparently decided to leave a message, after all.

Wondering what could that be all about, Alaric turned the loudspeaker and started taking off his gloves, hat, scarf and jacket.

He listened to the neutral voice providing all the details concerning the call, but then when the message started, the voice changed into a familiar one and Alaric froze in astonishment.

For a few seconds all he could hear was only the voice, _her voice_ , and the words he was hearing were making no sense to him, so he replayed the message, after the first couple of sentences realizing that while the voice without a doubt belonged to Isobel, the message wasn't hers, that she was reading some kind of a letter to him.

" _Hi Ric,_

 _Were going to ask you to keep an eye on Jeremy but... a secret anti-vampire squad? Really? You so fail at that role model thing. Don't even dream about getting the car. Or bourbon for that matter._

 _Here's to hoping you'll appreciate us devoting our last hours in this spectacular century to coming up with a single positive thing we could thank you for. Boy was it hard. But this is what we came up with._

 _Thank you for making us believe that it was possible to rebuild a family. For teaching us how to make friends under most unlikely of circumstances. How to find hope when all hope was lost._

 _Thank you for showing us that second chances didn't equal second choices. That family was about love, not blood. That life was about the present, not about the past and that you could never not give up too many times._

 _We need to bring this letter to a close before it ends up being longer than Stefan's. Speaking of (but don't necessarily tell him that), our Smoky Mountains adventure might've just been one of our 50 favorite days of all-time. On that note, you were so much cooler back when you were into happy hours. Or maybe we used to be less trouble. Either way, it was (mostly) good to have you on the team._

 _Find your way back home, wherever that is._

 _We will kind of miss you._

 _Fun fact: chances are that by the time you'll be reading this, we won't remember you at all! Gotta love karma ;)_

 _Damon & Elena"_

There was a pause in the recording.

" _I used to always open your mail, so I thought you wouldn't mind."_

His eyes fixed on the dark screen of his phone, Alaric slowly lowered himself into a chair at the table.

A neutral voice took over again.

" _You have no more messages."_

The snow storm outside intensified and Alaric increased the volume before replaying the message over and over again.


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: Thank you **so much** for your awesome reviews! :):):)

I know it's been two weeks, but perhaps it's for the better, because I don't know if most of you would appreciate this particular cliffhanger on the Valentine's Day ;)

 **Chapter 23**

Completely preoccupied with replaying the kiss, his first kiss with Elena, their first kiss, his first kiss, Damon didn't even notice the change of weather, his attention drawn to the windows of his bedroom only when the rain started drumming very loudly against the glass.

It seemed that within moments a quiet night turned into a tempestuous one, thunders reverberating in the darkness outside.

The rain was pouring down in torrents, but Damon simply readjusted his pillow, threw his arm behind his head and peacefully continued looking at the storm while his mind wandered back to Elena, a dreamy smile returning to his face.

But then another lighting brightened the sky and Damon jumped to his feet, struck by the realization that Elena could be afraid of the tempest.

He looked at the clock and frowned. It was almost three o'clock and he couldn't just march into her bedroom in the middle of the night. Of course he had a good pretext, but- No, no, it wasn't a pretext. He was really worried she might be afraid.

Not sure what the best course of action was, Damon finally decided that he would just peek into Elena's room to check if she was feeling well. If he found her asleep, he'd quietly close the door and she wouldn't even know he was there. If he found her awake, he'd ask if she was alright and if she was, he'd walk right out. If, however, he found her awake and afraid then he'd...

That's where his plan was getting a little hazy. Wrinkling his forehead, Damon stepped out of his and headed toward Elena's bedroom. He could just comfort her with words! That was it, Damon thought somewhat relieved. He could just reassure her she was safe. If that didn't turn out to be enough, he could... offer her a hug? Walk up to her and hug her? What if she was in bed? If he leaned down to hug her while she was lying in her bed, that could be a little awkward... So maybe he could simply offer to stay with her until morning?

Coming to a halt in front of Elena's room Damon tried to quickly decide on the details of offering his company for the night. Sitting on the edge of the bed wouldn't probably be entirely appropriate. So perhaps he should sit down in a chair. But which chair? There were three different chairs in the room. Or maybe he should remain by the door? He grimaced. The image of him standing by the door all night seemed a little creepy. Then again maybe Elena would find the very idea of him staying in her room overnight creepy, regardless of whether and where he'd be sitting or standing.

His hand up in the air, Damon stopped himself at the last moment before he automatically almost knocked on the door. On the second thought, he started wondering if perhaps he should knock. If Elena wasn't asleep, she might hear him, even if he knocked very quietly. That would also lower his chances of startling her if she was awake. Then of course if she was asleep, quiet knocking could startle her awake all the same.

Staring at the door in growing frustration, Damon was suddenly shook out of his confusing thoughts by a noise coming from inside of Elena's room. The sound was rather easy to interpret. It seemed that Elena was opening the window.

Drawing a sharp intake of breath, Damon very lightly knocked on the door and hesitantly walked in.

Then he stopped almost immediately, rendered speechless by the sight.

Elena, with her hair falling freely over her shoulders, was standing in front of an open window, against the backdrop of the dark, rainy night that made her white silhouette look like a magical apparition.

She turned around, so gracefully the fabric of her dress fluttered in the wind and it took Damon a few moments to realize that she was looking at him with smile. And that he wasn't breathing.

"Damon!" Elena whispered, stifling a laugh and tiptoeing toward him. "What are you doing here?"

She seemed more amused than anything else and it helped Damon relax a bit and regain his composure. He exhaled. "I wanted to-" He glanced over his shoulder and then closed the door behind him before lowering his voice even more, although he wasn't sure why closing the door made him whisper instead of allowing him to speak louder. "I wanted to see if you were alright, Elena," he explained, taking a few hasty steps toward her to meet her half-way through the room, which resulted in them bumping into each other. "I'm sorry," Damon whispered with an apologetic grimace.

Despite the apology, he found himself unable to move, his feet planted so firmly to the ground that he ended up standing so close to Elena that even in the semi-darkness surrounding them, he thought he could see the exact shade of her dark gold eyes.

"Why wouldn't I be alright?" Elena asked in a matching tone, smiling up at him and he felt as if she purposefully didn't move even for an inch, so his lips were hovering over hers when he spoke and the realization stunned him to the point of dizziness.

"I thought you might be afraid of thunderstorms," Damon tried not to stammer, his eyes darting between Elena's eyes and her lips so fast he was sure she'd notice it and either laugh or run away.

Not to mention that she had every right to get upset with him for suspecting such a thing in the first place. His concern had seemed perfectly logical to him a few moments ago, but now he could hardly remember how he'd arrived at such a conclusion. There was a strange, subtle but undeniable sense of fortitude about her. Of course she wouldn't be afraid, of anything.

But somehow, thankfully, Elena was displaying an astounding amount of patience and tolerance for his odd behavior and faulty analysis.

"I'm not afraid," she replied and he was gratified by noticing, with an unforgivable delay, that she kept glancing at his mouth as well.

That could not end well. Damon blinked rapidly, terrified by his own thoughts, by the unyielding need to crash his lips against hers and kiss her in the most scandalous way. He didn't even know how he came up with such images in his head, since he was sure he'd never witnessed such a scene. Perhaps he'd read it somewhere.

"Of course," Damon mumbled, trying to remind himself to breathe.

"I think I like storms," Elena added, glancing at the tempest raging outside, her eyes gleaming with fascination.

She took a few steps back toward the windows and Damon instinctively followed her, reaching out for her hand and finding it so quickly he realized she was letting her hand linger in the air, so he could grasp it faster.

Damon wasn't sure if it was Elena's or his hand that was shaking so much or whether it was her or his heart beating so hard, but he could hear the uneven, rhythmic sound through the rain, could feel the tremor run through her the same way it was repeatedly running through him.

"That's the most beautiful weather," Elena whispered, looking out of the windows, laughing under her breath when drops of rain tossed by the wind landed on her face. "The world seems more alive when it's raining."

Damon gazed at her, mesmerized, smiling back at her when she turned toward him to see if he was enjoying the tempest as well.

And for a second he thought that there was something wrong with his smile, because hers seemed to fade, but then he realized that the reason for the change in her expression was entirely different.

She looked at him, her eyes locking with his more and more, in a strange, gradual way, as if they were literally falling deeper and deeper into each other.

Then, to Damon's euphoric bewilderment Elena kissed him for the second time that night.

For a brief moment he was afraid it was only his mind playing tricks on him, but soon the absolute certainty that it was real, that it was really happening washed over him and his arms closed around her in a frenzied embrace.

The kiss was long and sweet, but the longer her soft lips were pressing against his, the less he was able to imagine ever breaking the kiss.

Elena's delicately mischievous smile returned when she drew back, but this time instead of staring at her in awe, utterly dazzled, Damon cupped her face in his hands and kissed her back.

Elena gasped against his mouth and he vaguely thought he should ask her if she was feeling alright, but when he felt her hands clutch his shoulders this seemed to be answer enough.

He felt like he knew exactly what she was thinking. There was such clarity in her every move, every touch, every breath. Every kiss was rippling through him in translucent, revitalizing waves. Like music, familiar and foreign, safe and terrifying. A long-awaited song he'd never heard coming.

It suddenly seemed like they both wanted to speak, but their lips locked even more ardently instead, their kisses growing more impatient, feverish, passionate.

They were clinging to each other tight when all of a sudden a strong gust of wind seemed to hurl all the turbulent streams of rain right into them.

Blinking the rain out of their eyes, Damon and Elena laughed at the realization that both of them were thoroughly drenched, rain dripping off their night clothes and their hair.

Grinning because she was grinning, Damon tightened his embrace around Elena. She looked so happy, so free, so beautiful with her rain-soaked hair clinging to her cheeks that he wished this moment would last forever.

"If I was to choose only one memory keep, it would be this," he whispered, aligning her lips with hers.

"This storm?" Elena asked softly, words melting into a kiss.

"No." Damon smiled, outlining her face with all of his fingertips at once. "Your eyes."

xxxdelenaxxx

Taking one last look around her office, Caroline turned off the lights and went out of the room.

"Oh my _God_!" She gasped, straightening up in surprise. "What are you doing here?!" She exclaimed, blinking at Klaus in irritation. "Do you know what time it is?! I'll help you out on this one. It's _late_."

Klaus raised his eyebrows, rising to his feet with an amused smirk playing about his lips. "But not too late, I hope? I spent the last two hours just staring at this fancy clock, so at the very least a two-hour adjustment is in order. It's an imitation, by the way. Same with the paintings," he added offhandedly, glancing around and indicating the framed artworks with his finger lifted thoughtfully in the air.

"If you don't mind, I'd rather not discuss forgery past midnight. Besides, these were here before me. I didn't have time to redecorate."

Rummaging through her purse in search of the keys, Caroline shot Klaus a look when he offered her a set.

"I found them on the desk," he explained with an innocent shrug.

Caroline snatched the keys out of his hand. "So what are you doing here?"

"When the number of people expressing their cautious bafflement over the fact I wasn't elsewhere today increased from Stefan to four, I decided to investigate."

Caroline narrowed her eyes at him. "My best friend was sucked into another dimension and I found out three out of my five community projects have been rejected. How is your week going?" She asked cheerfully with a thin smile, heading for the door.

Klaus followed her. "It was going quite well until my daughter discovered she was a witch."

Caroline shook her head with a grimace. "What?"

Klaus shrugged and pursed his lips, displaying his own confusion.

"On the bright side, it means there is one witch on this planet who likes you," Caroline offered. "Well, actually there are two. Freya and you seem pretty close, as far as estranged siblings go, I guess. Speaking of siblings. Have you called Elijah yet?"

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Caroline, if I'd like to devote all of my time to discussing my family relations I wouldn't have killed all of my parents."

"Not all of them," Caroline corrected with a sigh. "You didn't kill your biological father."

She let Klaus out of the reception area and locked the door behind them. When she turned around she noticed a peculiar look on Klaus' face. She was about to ask him what was that all about, but he cleared up her confusion without being prompted to do so.

"Actually, I did."

"What?! You didn't even know him!"

"He found me, a few years ago," Klaus replied under his breath, no trace of sarcasm in his voice.

"Why would he want to hurt you?" Caroline asked, perplexed, her frown deepening at a shadow of a bitter smile flitting across Klaus' face.

"He wasn't trying to hurt me. He seemed genuinely interested in helping me out, making up for the lost time, bonding, all that." Klaus chuckled dryly and Caroline felt a twinge of sympathy at how it didn't sound like he was ridiculing the notions themselves, but rather the ludicrous idea of them in the context of his life. "I would've liked him to be my father. I told him that." He paused. "And then I killed him."

"Why?" Caroline widened her eyes at him, fuming, but then her ire seemed to puff into exasperation with startling immediacy. "Never mind," she interrupted him with a wave of her hand before he had a chance to reply. "I know why."

She checked if the door was locked and headed for the stairs.

The solitary sound of her heals on the steps made her realize Klaus didn't follow. She turned around in the middle of the staircase and gave him a questioning look, that was mirroring his, except that hers was tinged with somber humor.

"Because it's easier to do the wrong thing than to risk being wrong about someone." She extended her arms with a wry snort. "I do this all the time."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Bonnie Bennett! What in the world are you doing?"

Bonnie shuddered in her armchair, only then realizing that she was apparently already half-asleep, her grandmother's voice shaking her awake, all the books in her lap rattling to the floor.

"Grams!"

"It's three o'clock in the morning!"

"Don't worry," Bonnie replied with a sigh. "I'm used to it. That's what the last five years of my life looked like anyway."

"That's why you're planning for the next five to be like that too?" Sheila deadpanned, crossing her arms over her chest.

Rubbing her eyes, Bonnie gave her a cheerless smile and shrugged.

"You have to let it go, Bonnie," Sheila said after a pause in a low, serious voice.

Bonnie frowned. "I was going to let it go, Grams. I really was. But that thing, that thread is there and I have to figure out what it is!"

"No, you don't," Sheila said with a grimace. She walked up to Bonnie and sat down next to her. "Bonnie, that thread isn't there to taunt you. You have nothing to do with it. You did what you could. The spell is done and it can't be reversed. That's all there's to know. That thread has nothing to do with the spell. Or you. Let it go."

Bonnie grimaced. "I can't. I don't want to. What if it is a clue? Or a sign? Or-"

"You're deluding yourself, child. Deep down you must know that," Sheila said slowly, holding her granddaughter's gaze.

"You know what it is, Grams, don't you?" Bonnie asked tonelessly, her voice heavy with resignation despite a bright flicker of hope in her eyes.

"I know what it isn't," Sheila retorted with a weak smile, reaching out and pulling Bonnie into her arms, letting her granddaughter's head fall onto her shoulder. "It isn't a solution you're looking for."

xxxdelenaxxx

"One... two..." Elena counted quietly, sliding her fingers in between Damon's back and forth.

They were lying on her bed, half-turned toward the open window, Elena's back pressing against Damon's chest, his chin resting on the top of her head, his arms draped over her waist.

"Three-"

Elena stifled a gasp when a thunder roared nearby, lightnings cutting the black night sky in sharp, whitish lines visible only for a brief second.

She tilted her head to the side, glancing up at Damon with a smile. Smiling back at her, Damon leaned down to press a soft kiss to her lips.

If sitting on the edge of her bed had seemed inappropriate to him an hour ago, now he couldn't even bring himself to dwelling over the fact that they were both lying in the same bed, watching the storm and sharing endless kisses. It seemed incomprehensible, but felt so natural that it couldn't possibly be wrong.

"We should go out and dance," Elena said, intertwining her hands with Damon's, her eyes searching the sky as if she was trying to catch the very moment the rain was leaving the dark clouds above.

She automatically straightened up feeling Damon shift behind her. She gave him a questioning look when she realized he was about to slide off the bed and rise to his feet.

"You said you wanted to dance, Elena," Damon explained, narrowing his eyes at her in a small smile.

"Yes, but I didn't mean for us to actually do it," Elena said, stifling a laugh and then holding her breath when Damon leaned toward her, his eyes never leaving hers.

"Why not?"

Elena smiled, mystified by the way the two whispered words seemed to wrap themselves around her like a satin shawl.

The question felt as if it was opening the door into the unknown and yet crossing this threshold felt like the most familiar choice she could possibly make.

xxxdelenaxxx

The view from the roof was as calming as he'd expected it to be and yet Desmond couldn't find any comfort in it. Faint lights in the distance, shadows of the trees, everything looked like beautiful illustrations in a book he no longer wanted to read.

A stifled gasp of surprise made Desmond look toward the window through which he'd climbed onto the roof with the intention of finding a small, secluded space where he could be alone with his thoughts.

"And here I thought I was being clever," John said with a brief, humorless smile. "I'm sorry."

He turned his head preparing to go back into the house, but Desmond stopped him.

"No,it's alright. There's enough room here, I guess. Unless you wished to be alone," he added as an afterthought, hoping it didn't sound too much like a blatant allusion.

John gave him a probing look. "No, I was definitely hoping to run into a lot of people here."

Desmond smiled weakly in reply, but the smile didn't reach his eyes.

Propping his hands on the window frame, John pushed himself upwards and sat down on the flat surface, resting his back against the shingles.

"Good view," he muttered, squinting into the distance.

Desmond nodded, glancing at a piece of paper John kept folding back and forth in his hands. "Have you read it?" He asked in a low voice.

John shook his head. "I was going to read it here. Have you read yours?"

"I didn't have much reading to do." Desmond opened his palm revealing a set of car keys in it. "That was my letter."

"That's pretty good," John acknowledged with a nod, shifting his eyes to the letter in his hands. His forehead wrinkled in a frown. "I half-expect an empty page."

"I'm sure it won't be that bad," Desmond said reassuringly.

"I was that bad," John replied hollowly. "I was an empty page in my daughter's life. I wasn't a father to her. She didn't even know I was her father until she was seventeen. Estranged parents bonding, eh?" He added in a rushed attempt at sarcasm and then grimaced, running his hand across his face in a tired gesture. "I'm sorry. See, that's why everyone hates me."

"I'm sure Elena doesn't hate you," Desmond said in such a kind, even voice that John looked up at him in mild surprise. "If only because I don't think she hates anyone."

John barked a laugh.

"Oh."

Stefan stopped mid-way through preparing to pull himself through the window and onto the roof.

"So much for private hideaways," John said, turning the piece of paper in his hands with absent and yet purposeful care.

"Guess I should've made a reservation." Stefan raised his hand in a casually apologetic gesture before turning to leave.

"There's still plenty of room," John said, sliding across the narrow seating space when Desmond moved as close to the end of it as he could.

Stefan shook his head. "No, thanks. It's nothing personal. I'm just in the kind of mood when I feel like pushing people off the roofs, not so much talking with them."

"So that's where everybody's gone to."

Stefan craned his neck toward the other window where Jeremy's face appeared. "Come on. Everyone's going back inside. I'm taking over the annoying Samaritan duty in my family. Well, our family," he corrected himself, glancing at Desmond. "How are the driving lessons going?"

Stefan's forehead wrinkled in confusion, as it was only then that he noticed Damon's camaro keys in Desmond's hands.

"I thought Enzo got the car," Stefan said with a hint of a question in his tone.

Jeremy raised his eyebrows. "You don't know?" He bit back a snort when Stefan gave him a baffled look. "Did you get a non-informational pictographic letter like Bonnie?"

"I haven't read my letter yet," Stefan replied in a low voice, a barely perceptible trace of irritation laced into it. He just wished everyone would stop asking him about his letter. He'd read it when he was ready to read it. "What is it that I don't know?"

"First, we have to go downstairs, because that's where I set up the Xbox."

Stefan sighed. "Will this day never end?"

Jeremy bit back a chuckle. "I'm sorry, I would've let everyone sulk in solitude, but I've got instructions to do otherwise."

Stefan ran his hand across his face with a tired, wry snort. "I should've guessed that."

xxxdelenaxxx

Dancing in the rain hadn't really worked out since by the time they had managed to sneak out of the house it had stopped raining, so Damon and Elena had returned inside, trying not to wake anyone up while climbing up the stairs, hand in hand, one step at a time.

Elena wasn't sure how long she'd been sleeping, but it couldn't have been long enough since she'd struggled not to yawn while getting dressed and leaving the room in the morning.

Damon had left her a note saying that he and Stefan had to go somewhere, but there was something strangely cheerful about the tone of the letter that made Elena all the more impatient for Damon's return to see what he'd been up to.

In the meantime, she decided to make amends for the not entirely pleasant meeting the day before.

Having asked Hazel for advice as to where she could find the person she was looking for, Elena made her way through the house and knocked on the library door at the end of the corridor.

"Come in," Giuseppe grunted in reply, his eyes fixed on the door in anticipation of giving the intruder a glare.

"Good morning." With a timid smile, Elena soundlessly stepped inside. "I thought I could come here and read," she explained, glancing at the book in her arms.

The look of irritation in Giuseppe's eyes already faded a little at the sight of Elena, but after she spoke the irritation vanished completely and was immediately replaced by puzzlement. He glanced right and left as if he was trying to find something appealing enough about this room to make the girl come here of all places.

"You may go read wherever you want, child. The house is spacious enough to accommodate everyone," Giuseppe said, shifting his eyes between Elena and the papers on his desk, signaling to her that he was too busy to continue the discussion.

"Yes, but that's exactly why I thought I would rather come here," Elena said to Giuseppe's growing befuddlement. "Damon and Stefan had gone out and there's no one else in the house," she trailed off, almost as if she thought that was a good enough explanation, but the look on Giuseppe's face convinced her otherwise. "I thought I would come read here, so you wouldn't be here alone."

Giuseppe blinked, taken completely aback by Elena's explanation.

"I also wanted to apologize once again for yesterday. It wasn't Damon's fault. It was mine. I asked him to show me neighborhood and we've just gone too far to return before the dusk."

"I have accepted the explanation yesterday already. There is no reason for more apologies," Giuseppe said with a frown that seemed to form on his forehead out of a habit rather than because of his mood. "I believe none of us would benefit from becoming the talk of the town and an unmarried young woman living under one roof with a widower and two unmarried young men who aren't her family warranties curiosity."

Elena nodded in understanding. "I appreciate you letting me stay here."

Giuseppe waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "That wasn't why I said it."

"I know. But I'm still grateful. I don't know what I would do without Damon saving me and bringing me here. Damon, Stefan and you, Mr. Salvatore have all been very kind-"

"Enough, enough," Giuseppe interrupted her with a huff.

He wasn't used to people expressing their gratitude to him. It was a surprisingly pleasant feeling to be made aware of having done something right, but he just wasn't used to it.

Scanning the documents in front of him with an absent frown, it suddenly crossed his mind that perhaps the reason for this feeling to be so unusual was that he rarely did something with the sole intention of helping someone, and the realization gave him pause.

Taking the pensive expression on Giuseppe's face for a sign that he agreed to her presence, Elena crossed the room and sat down on the settee by the window.

Giuseppe's eyes darted to her and he opened his mouth to assure her that there was no need to keep him company, but then a strange thought made him reconsider.

It was rather nice not to be alone and if he had a daughter, perhaps he'd like her to sit in the same room with him every once in a while and read while he would be completing tiresome calculations or preparing drafts for the Council.

"I hope the book is interesting," he decided to make a single comment in order not to seem entirely taciturn.

Elena looked up at him with a smile. "It's Stefan's diary. Damon and Stefan thought it might be a good way for me to become familiar with everyone in town and the town itself."

Giuseppe seemed very surprised, but he regained his composure almost instantly. "I didn't know Stefan was writing a diary," he muttered levelly.

"I'm sure taking care of such a large estate is very time-consuming," Elena added quickly, having noticed a flitting look of sadness mixed with embarrassment that appeared on Giuseppe's face. "There's probably not enough time for family to just be together and talk."

"Yes," Giuseppe murmured after a pause and then turned his attention back to the papers on his desk.

Elena opened the diary in her hands and started to read.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Here you are."

Grayson stopped in the doorway, glancing around Damon and Elena's room with a thoughtful frown on his face.

Miranda looked up at him from the pictures she was holding in her hands, a card box standing on the floor next to her.

"Jeremy gave it to me. He said Elena put her memories in it before she asked Alaric to alter them-"

"I can't wrap my mind around all of these stories," Grayson interrupted her with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Miranda tilted her head to the side with a warmly scolding look. "You just don't want to listen to them."

"I did listen to them," Grayson protested in a low voice, slowly stepping into the room and scrutinizing it with a deepening frown. "They're full of pain and suffering. Who would want to know their child's life was like that?"

Miranda shook her head. "It wasn't like that all the time. You're focusing on the wrong parts." She reached out for him, gesturing for him to sit on the floor next to her. "She was happy too."

When Grayson lowered himself to the ground, Miranda handed him a stash of photos. Slowly, Grayson started looking through them, Damon and Elena's faces so close together in each of them, as if they were always unconsciously, constantly leaning toward each other.

For a few minutes he looked carefully at the several photo booth pictures, so full of life, love and genuine joy.

"And her life didn't end. She's just... living somewhere else now," Miranda said softly, unfolding the letter that was lying in her lap and giving it to Grayson who looked at it for a longer while before taking it from his wife's hands.

" _Mom, Dad,_

 _There's a special kind of strength that can be drawn from a happy childhood. But the strength that I drew from mine is more than that. It's everlasting, invincible. Because my childhood was more than happy._

 _You've been building me up long before and long after we were torn apart on the Wickery Bridge that night. And you'll continue building me up until my last day, wherever and whenever it will be._

 _I'll always love you._

 _Elena_

Prompted by Miranda to flip the page, Grayson looked at the other side of it.

 _Dear Mrs. and Mr. Gilbert,_

 _I regret that a set of unfortunate circumstances prevented me from having a chance to ask you in person for Elena's hand in marriage, but I'm going to assume your answer would be an enthusiastic yes, so please feel cordially invited to one day (soon!) attend our wedding in spirit._

 _I love Elena with all of my heart._

 _The son-in-law all of your friends would envy you,_

 _Damon"_

With a sigh, Grayson gave the letter back to Miranda.

"Giving it back to me isn't going to spare you the trouble," Miranda retorted, squinting.

Grayson gave her a confused look.

"We should prove her right. You can't be a good parent without being a good person."

"I'm not sure-"

"We should make things right between us and Isobel. Tell me how it all happened. I always believed... or maybe I wanted to believe that she'd abandoned Elena, but that's not the whole truth, is it? If there's any truth to it at all."

Grayson lowered his head, his eyes fixed on an unidentifiable point in space. "Isn't it too late for that?"

Slowly, deliberately Miranda grasped his hand in hers and waited for him to look at her. "My last thought before I drowned was that there was too late for so many things." She gave him a reassuring smile. "You can never predict when and if you're gonna get another chance. But when you do, you have to take it and make the most of it."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Whatever did you do to our father, Elena?" Damon asked with a smile once they were far away from the house, half-way through the clearing on their way toward the river.

Elena gave him an amused smile. "What do you mean?"

She laughed when Damon twirled her around and pulled her into his arms, his forehead falling against hers.

"He asked Stefan and I to accompany him to the Council meeting. He also mentioned throwing a ball. And he _smiled_."

Stifling a chuckle, Elena slid her hands over Damon's shoulders and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I didn't do anything. We just talked for a little while."

She raised her eyebrows when she noticed Damon's gaze grow thoughtful. He slightly tilted back his head and cupped her face in his warm hands. Elena held her breath.

"You make everything better. Everything and everyone," he said quietly, his eyes wandering all over her face in admiration.

Elena bit back a laugh. "I'm afraid you're giving me too much credit. Like I said, I didn't do anything extraordinary." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you going to tell me what you've been doing all morning?"

She expected a retort or a smirk, so when without a warning a ring appeared in front of her, she drew a sharp intake of breath, her eyes darting between the silver ring sparkling in the sun and Damon's bright blue eyes.

"Damon..." She started in a barely audible, stunned voice, but Damon hushed her with a soft kiss, slowly sliding the ring onto her finger while kissing her.

"It was my mother's ring. It was at my grandparents' house. It took us some time with Stefan to find it."

"It's beautiful," Elena whispered with a smile, wondering if she was perhaps overinterpreting the gift.

"It's supposed to have magical powers," Damon continued, a trace of amusement in his voice indicating he didn't exactly know what to make of his own words.

Elena chuckled. "How so?"

"These violet speckles at the edges of the diamond?" Damon said, holding Elena's hand upwards, so the sun rays were falling straight onto the ring on her finger. "They're supposedly vervain flowers and vervain is an herb that some people believe can protect from evil."

Elena watched Damon for a few moments with a thoughtful smile. "I don't need a ring for that," she said quietly after a pause. "I feel safe with you."

Damon's eyes slowly shifted to hers and the intensity of his gaze made Elena's heart flutter. He squeezed her hand in his.

"Elena, will you marry me?"

Elena's eyes widened in astonishment, despite the thought having crossed her mind the moment she'd seen the ring.

"We've known each other for three days!" She said softly, her eyes brightening in exhilaration that made the uncertain hopefulness in Damon's heart burst into overpowering joy.

She was going to say yes!

He leaned into her, his thumbs skimming along the sides of her face, outlining the contour of her smile.

"Elena, all I know is that I don't want to spend another day without you."

xxxdelenaxxx

It was dark by the time Damon and Elena came back to the house, but they hoped that an engagement announcement would divert Giuseppe's attention from them being late for the supper. Again.

But before they even reached the porch, the door opened and Stefan dashed toward them, shouting to them from the distance.

"At last! You are never going to believe this!" He said with a laugh, waving his hands at them to make them hurry up inside. "Come, come quickly!"

"What's happening?"

"You are never going to guess who is here!" Stefan exclaimed, a mixture of amusement and excitement clear in his voice and Damon couldn't figure out whose visit could possibly put his brother in such a mood.

"Who is here?" Damon inquired with a frown while Elena held onto his arm, amused by Stefan's behavior.

Stefan shook his head. "I am not going to tell you. You have to _see_ this," he said, running back into the house.

"See what?" Damon called after him, but Stefan had already gone inside.

After exchanging confused glances, Damon and Elena walked into the house and Damon smirked happily when Elena pressed a rushed, sizzling kiss to his lips before they headed across the corridor toward the room where voices were coming from.

They could hear Stefan speaking and Giuseppe grunt something in reply and when they were already by the door, a shrill laughter reverberated across the house.

They stopped abruptly in their tracks and it crossed Elena's mind how very odd it was that cheerful laughter could chill her to her bones.

"Here they are!" Stefan jumped to his feet, beaming at Damon and Elena while Giuseppe's eyes shifted between Elena and a woman sitting in front of him with her back toward the door.

Wordlessly, Damon and Elena stepped into the room and the first thing Elena noticed was a pair of dark eyes regarding her with shrewd curiosity.

A girl dressed in modest clothes who was sitting to the side of the room looked at her unblinkingly with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Emily, help me stand," sounded a lively request and Elena's eyes darted to the figure in the middle of the room.

Before Emily moved from her spot by the wall, Stefan rushed toward the guest to offer his assistance.

The girl's elaborate, light blue and pale peach gown made a swishing sound when she turned around, the movement making her long, dark curls dance around her face and shoulders for a second, before her entire form came to a still.

She thrust up her chin and Elena gasped, both at the sight itself and at the way the girl's eyes seemed to aggressively sink into hers.

"Elena!" The girl exclaimed with gentle concern all the while scrutinizing her with painful intensity, as if she was trying to immediately read the expression on Elena's face, guess all of her thoughts as quickly as possible.

Elena wasn't sure what this girl that looked exactly like her was looking for, but she must've liked what she found in her face, because after a second she relaxed her stance, Elena's genuine bewilderment and utter confusion apparently putting her at ease.

"I've been looking everywhere for you!" Katherine's lips stretched into a sweet smile, a cold, predatory glint flashing in her eyes when she walked up to Elena with open arms. "My dear, dear sister!"


	24. Chapter 24

A/N: Thank you **so so so much** for your fabulous reviews! I appreciate each and every one of them more than you know :]:]:]

 **Chapter 24**

It was surely a wonderful thing to learn that she had a sister. Elena sighed. But somehow repeating this sentence to herself provided her with nothing but a headache. No number of repetitions seemed enough to change the numb feeling accompanying the words. No matter how many times she tried, the word 'sister' evoked no emotions in her.

Her forehead wrinkling in thought, Elena started wondering if they were close.

"And then he asked me to dance," Katherine finished one of her anecdotes with an amused chuckle that turned into a gasp when Hazel accidentally knocked one of the cups with her elbow, causing the remnants of Katherine's tea spill onto her dress.

"I'm so sorry, Miss!" Hazel exclaimed, horrified by her clumsiness much more than the situation warranted.

A glint of anger flashed in Katherine's eyes so quickly Elena wasn't sure she saw it at all.

"Oh, don't worry about that." Katherine said with a smile, standing up to her feet to leave the table, so Emily could try cleaning the dress.

"We are very sorry for that," Giuseppe said, giving Hazel a casual glare, his mind still more preoccupied with the latest turn of events.

On the one hand, Katherine's story about Elena mysteriously disappearing from home a few weeks ago sounded perfectly coherent, but on the other it was vague enough to make him wonder if there was more to it. Katherine insisted that Elena's health was fragile and that incidents of her wandering off while suffering from temporary amnesia had happened a few times in the past. Only that this time Elena had somehow managed to wander off further than usual. To Giuseppe's slight puzzlement, everything that might've happened in the meantime didn't seem to worry Katherine much, if her exuberant demeanor was any indication.

"It is alright," Katherine repeated with another smile, turning around in such a way, so everyone at the table could see her face and how unconcerned with the stain on her dress she was.

But her facial expression aside, there was a trace of something in her voice that Elena couldn't quite place, but it made her feel uneasy.

Placing her hand on Hazel's shoulder, which prompted Hazel to look up at her, Katherine seemed to whisper something reassuring to her, but the sound of Emily cleaning the thick fabric of the dress with a piece of cloth drowned Katherine's words and Elena couldn't hear what exactly she was saying.

Elena couldn't also see Katherine's face, but it seemed as if Hazel froze for a second before she smiled nervously, apologized once again and scurried back into the kitchen.

"May we provide you with a new dress?" Stefan asked, glancing at Damon and Elena who were being very quiet during the breakfast and looked like they were barely listening to the conversation.

Suddenly, Damon stormed to his feet.

"We have an announcement to make," he said in an almost stern voice, as if he was already bracing himself for an unpredictable reaction.

The evening before they had run out of time to make the announcement. Not to mention that after Elena had learned her parents had passed away and she and her sister were alone in the world, it hadn't seemed right to proceed right away to sharing joyful news. But today Damon had woken up with a strong conviction that the new circumstances not only shouldn't make them postpone their plans, but quite the opposite. He wanted for Elena to know that her sister wasn't her only family. That they were all one family now.

Katherine's eyes shifted to Damon reaching for Elena's hand, which prompted Elena to stand up as well. They shared a faint, happy smile before Damon said.

"We are engaged."

"Since when?" Giuseppe asked so immediately and so flatly as if he'd been waiting to hear just that all morning.

"Since yesterday," Damon replied brusquely, failing to notice a hint of humor in Giuseppe's voice.

"Congratulations!" Stefan ran to them, beaming.

"Oh my. It seems I've arrived just in time, haven't I?" Katherine said with a smirk and Elena realized that perhaps the unsettling feeling Katherine seemed to evoke in her was due to the fact that her sister always looked as if millions of wheels were turning in her head at all times, as if she was never just talking or just smiling or just listening, but always scrutinizing and judging everyone and everything around her.

"May I know how this came into being?" Giuseppe asked, slowly standing up since everyone else was already standing and it seemed the breakfast was over.

"I asked Elena to marry me and she said yes," Damon replied courtly and Elena wasn't sure if it was the answer itself or Damon's utterly serious tone or perhaps just her mood returning to what it had been like the day before, that made her grin.

She laced her hand through Damon's arm and leaned her head on his shoulder.

Giuseppe squeezed his eyes shut for a second. "Yes, I suppose if she said no, you wouldn't be engaged," he said, clasping his hands behind his back. "That is not what I was asking. How long have you known each other? Three days?"

"Four," Damon and Elena replied in unison.

Stefan chuckled and then straightened up when Giuseppe shot him a look.

"I'm glad you're counting," Giuseppe said after shifting his eyes between Damon and Elena a few times. "Is that all? Because I have a meeting at nine."

Damon drew a breath and continued speaking in a ceremonious manner despite Elena lightly squeezing his arm to signal that everything was as well as it could be and it was a good moment to end the conversation for now. "We are engaged to be married."

"Yes, I did draw that remote conclusion," Giuseppe replied and Stefan blinked in surprise at the thought that if he didn't know any better, he'd think their father was finding the exchange amusing and might even be enjoying it a bit.

"We are getting married next Saturday," Damon blurted out on an impulse.

In many ways, the conversation was going better than he'd imagined possible, so he thought he could take advantage of the opportune moment and go ahead with a more detailed schedule.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Elena's eyes widen a little and he held his breath, in case she was going to protest the date if she thought it was too soon.

But moments passed and Elena didn't say anything, just continued holding onto his arm, so after a while Damon exhaled, very slowly, feeling overpowering joy run through every fibre of his body.

"Next Saturday," Giuseppe repeated with a pensive nod. "I believe I do not have any conflicting arrangements at this time, so I should be able to appear. Anything else?"

Damon and Elena stared at him, stupefied, so Giuseppe excused himself.

"Miss Pierce, of course you are welcome to stay here until the wedding," he said on his way toward the door.

But before he walked out a horrifying series of screams reverberated through the house and after exchanging questioning looks everyone rushed toward where the screams were coming from.

Damon ran into the kitchen first and stopped dead in his tracks at the bloodcurdling sight of Hazel holding a scorching pot in her bare hands, screaming.

Pushing Elena backwards to spare her the sight, he snatched the pot out of Hazel's half-burned hands, and tossed it as far as possible, scalding hot water splashing to the floor.

Damon and Stefan quickly moved Hazel toward a bowl with cold water and placed her red, blistered hands in it.

"What happened here?" Damon asked, appalled.

"I don't know," Hazel cried, tears streaming down her face as she was still shaking from shock and pain. "I just felt like I had to do it," she said, stifling a moan. "I heard a voice, a voice in my head, telling me to do it."

"It will be alright," Elena said softly and Damon's head snapped into her direction, but when his eyes met Elena's determined gaze he knew there was no point of trying to make her stay out of it.

Drawing a cup after a cup, Elena started pouring cool water over Hazel's hands while Stefan moved one of the chairs closer, so Damon could help Hazel sit in it while they were all tending to her injured palms.

"I must go. Take care of it," Giuseppe said and left the kitchen having decided that the situation wasn't dire enough to require his presence.

"That's awful," Katherine said with a gasp, watching the scene from the doorway. "Emily, can you help her?"

Exchanging a long look with Katherine, Emily reluctantly stepped into the kitchen and walked up to the small gathering. Elena, Damon and Stefan watched her submerge her hands in the water and touch Hazel's hands.

Hazel's eyes darted to Emily in anxious anticipation of what may happen, but apart from the water in the bowl swaying slightly, nothing seemed to happen until Emily withdrew her hands.

"There," Katherine called out to them with a cheery smile and only then everyone, including Hazel noticed that her hands were healed. "Emily knows a few useful tricks, but don't tell anyone," she added in what Elena thought was a strangely conspicuous manner, considering she was asking them to keep a secret. "Elena, would you join me for a walk?" Katherine asked, turning on her heels. "I will wait for you outside."

Elena nodded slowly, watching her go. Emily followed the suit, but Elena reached out to stop her.

"Emily, thank you-" she started, but stopped abruptly in mid-sentence when Emily recoiled at her touch. "I'm sorry," Elena said uncertainly, shaking her head. "I didn't mean to-"

She trailed off, caught off guard by Emily's gaze, so dark and fierce and yet so full of warmth she hadn't noticed before.

"It's alright," Emily said quietly. "It's not you, it's me," she added with a ghost of a somber smile flitting across her face and then hastily left the kitchen.

xxxdelenaxxx

Stefan kept shifting his eyes between Lily and Desmond long after they had finished telling him their story.

The night before he had been rendered completely astounded when Jeremy had explained to him just who the mysterious stranger whom Damon and Elena had brought home was. Now he was left feeling tired and upset. Somehow it seemed that their lives were always off the right or easy track by a hairbreadth.

"Why you never told Damon about it?" Stefan asked after a pause, regarding Lily with a nonplussed frown. "He wasn't a child anymore when you," he made quotation marks with his fingers, "'died.'"

"Why would I tell him that?" Lily's voice was perfectly unfazed, genuinely baffled.

Stefan straightened up with a wry snort. "Because it was the truth? Or just to cheer him up? I don't know. You tell me why you didn't."

"I didn't want him to be haunted by the same regret I was haunted by," Lily replied at last.

Desmond clenched his jaw, watching her out of the corner of his eye and only then Stefan noticed that he was holding Lily's hand throughout the conversation.

"Regret?" Stefan echoed, his eyebrows raising. "Somehow I doubt regret would make Damon's list of worst things imaginable. Not a good excuse."

"It's not an excuse, Stefan," Lily said firmly. "I thought I was doing the right thing. I made many wrong choices later on, but that was the choice I made back when I was trying, very hard, to make best choices. For the three of us."

Stefan's eyes turned to Desmond who opened his mouth to speak, but before he had a chance to say anything, the door opened and Jeremy peered into the room.

"I'm sorry for barging in, but I need help convincing people to go on our trip. I want to go talk to Bonnie and I need someone to talk to Jenna."

"I recommend you ask someone who wants to go on this trip in the first place," Stefan pointed out with a brief smile.

Jeremy sighed. "So that's what being Elena feels like. You people are insufferable," he said with a grimace. "But here's is my spin on family bonding. From now on it's obligatory. I'm not asking. I'm saying we're all going. The three of you are going," he repeated, glancing around the room. "Bonnie, John and Jenna need to go too. Sarah and her parents had left. My parents are excused, because they went to visit Isobel, Enzo's not picking up his phone and Caroline said she was working and when I asked about the rest of her family she hung up, so I didn't have a chance to clarify I was only asking about her mom. I'm not forgetting anyone, right?" He asked, squinting.

"Go talk to Bonnie. If somehow you manage to convince her, we'll go too," Stefan replied, running his hand across his face.

"Start packing," Jeremy said with a small smile, closing the door behind him.

xxxdelenaxxx

"So you don't remember anything at all?" Katherine asked for at least the third time, as if she was hoping for Elena to change her mind.

Elena frowned. She hoped that during their walk together, she'd have a chance to ask about their parents, their home, but Katherine seemed much more interested in her current whereabouts, not to mention that she was acting a little strange.

At first, she was trying to ask every question while looking very intently into Elena's eyes, but after a while she seemed to get upset and impatient for a reason Elena couldn't discern. Then the conversation started feeling more and more like a one-sided interrogation.

"I already told you," Elena confirmed quietly. "So one day I just walked out of our house and never came back?"

"Yes," Katherine said absently, twirling the parasol between her fingers. "I already told you," she mimicked Elena's tone and gave her an amused smile. "Now, tell me about your engagement. What kind of nonsense is this?"

The second question made the smile that appeared on Elena's face after the first one vanish immediately.

"What do you mean?"

Katherine snorted. "You can't in all seriousness consider marrying someone you've known only for three days?"

"Four."

Katherine rolled her eyes. "You don't know anything about him. You don't know his character. How old is he? Twenty-four? Isn't it strange that a man his age, of his social status and fortune has not found himself a wife yet? Perhaps there is a reason for that. Perhaps he has something to hide. How do you know he isn't a miser? Or worse, self-indulgent and prodigal? Aggressive? Abusive? A gambler? An excessive drinker?"

"That's absurd!" Elena interrupted her with all the vehemence she could muster.

"Oh no, my dear Elena. These are all valid potential perils to consider and it is my duty as your sister to bring them to your obviously impaired attention."

Elena shook her head, not knowing if she should further express her indignation or just laugh at Katherine's ridiculous accusations. Then again she probably wasn't offering these disparaging remarks to hurt her, so Elena decided to dismiss them as politely as possible.

"Damon is kind, courteous and considerate. I understand and appreciate your concern, but I assure you that you have nothing to worry about," she said, giving Katherine a small smile and reaching out for her hand.

The fact that she felt no connection to her sister didn't mean she should be acting like a stranger to her, Elena thought, trying to get over that bizarre blockade in her head that made it difficult to speak her mind in Katherine's presence. Even if there were disagreements between them in the past, wasn't the very fact that Katherine was hiding them from her a proof that she hoped to make things right between them and start anew? If that was her intention, her reason for being a little secretive, then Elena was determined to help her mend their bond, if her suspicions that it had been severed were true.

Katherine's eyes lit up and Elena wished she didn't look that amused, but perhaps that glint of humor in her eyes was her way of masking vulnerability?

"My concern is well-justified," Katherine reiterated and Elena felt a twinge of cold at the realization that Katherine's opinions seemed set in stone and nothing she might say could possibly alter them. "Such haste! You _must_ feel there is an ulterior motif to his actions."

"Ulterior motif?" Elena blinked in complete puzzlement. "He loves me and I love him," she said in a low, firm voice, drawing back her hand.

Katherine gave her a derisive smile. "Did your common sense get lost along with your memories? It is not love. It is infatuation, at best. Or just lust. But my guess is that in this case it is actually _his_ common sense that is mostly at play here."

Elena frowned. "I don't understand what you're saying."

"I'm saying that you might've forgotten, but the country is at war and unmarried men are being drafted into the army first."

Elena stared at Katherine, for a second unsure if they were still talking about her engagement, because she felt that the subject of their conversation changed too much for there to be a connection.

"You're not serious," Elena finally stuttered. "You don't really think that Damon asked me to marry him just to... to avoid a military draft?" She grimaced in disbelief.

"What other explanation is there?" Katherine deadpanned. "Either that, or he has some deficiencies of a different kind, like I mentioned before. In any case, you shouldn't marry him. Before you disappeared, it was settled that you were to go visit our family in Spain and I think that is exactly what should happen."

"You said we didn't have any family," Elena said hastily, feeling panic wash over her.

"They are... distant relatives," Katherine replied with a faint sneer.

"I don't want to go to Spain. I don't want to go anywhere! I'm getting married. I'm marrying Damon and I'm staying here, in this town!"

Katherine's eyes seem to narrow more and more proportionately to Elena's voice rising.

Without waiting for a reply, Elena turned on her heels and marched back toward the house.

"Not so docile, after all," Katherine murmured to herself, her lips quirking into a devious smirk. "That's too bad for her."

xxxdelenaxxx

" _That_ is how a perfect first date should look like," Enzo said, leaning back in his chair and pointing to three more books Isobel placed on the table already occupied by half a dozen of leather-covered volumes.

"I'm sorry," Isobel replied, smiling a little. "I guess being dead makes one a little rusty when it comes to these things. I didn't realize that 'I can come by and read with you' was a metaphor?"

Enzo propped his head on his elbow and gave her a lop-sided grin. "No, actually, my offer was quite literal. I was just hoping for you to overinterpret it," he added, watching Isobel sit down at the table across from him.

Isobel glanced up at him with a faint smile. "You don't have anyone to warn you now, so I guess I'll have to do that myself." She picked up a small fork and turned it around between her fingers before bringing it down onto a piece of cake on her plate. "I'm not a good girlfriend material."

"And why is that?" Enzo inquired, the smile not leaving his eyes.

"To begin with, I didn't protest when you compelled the poor man who was apparently living here for the last few years to give me my apartment back for free."

"Have you seen his watch? He'll get himself a new apartment in no time." Enzo shrugged, taking a sip of his coffee. "Besides, if it proves anything, it proves that we're a good match," he narrowed his eyes at Isobel, smirking. "Unless..." He paused, his expression growing serious and also thoughtful in the way that Isobel found surprising and strangely heartwarming. "You're still hung up on that dull, half-boring, half-vicious ex-husband of yours."

Isobel leaned back in her chair with a weak smile. "I'd never believe Ric of all people could end up getting on everyone's nerves. It seems people do change."

"Have you called him yet?"

Isobel tilted her head to the side, squinting. "Kind of."

She pushed her tea cup and the plate to the side and reached for one of the books piled up on the table.

"So... you're hung up on him or not? Or kind of?"

Isobel shot Enzo a mildly amused look. "You're kind of stubborn, aren't you?"

Enzo shrugged. "I like clear situations."

"Is any situation ever really clear?"

"When you love someone, that's clear," Enzo offered with a pensive smile. "It's always the circumstances and choices that aren't, but feelings are pretty clear, I think."

"Interesting theory. Idealistic." Isobel placed the book in front of her and opened it slowly. "But feelings aside, there is one thing you can't, or rather you shouldn't forgive in a relationship. One thing that ruins it forever." She lowered her voice to a wry whisper. "I chose becoming a vampire over my marriage."

"People recover from worse than that."

Isobel shook her head, looking up at Enzo with a bitter smile. "If you choose someone or something else over the person you're with, it's over. That's the betrayal you don't recover from."

Enzo held her gaze and then watched her for a longer while when she started looking through the yellowed pages of the book.

"Now I know how you became friends with Damon," Enzo said at last in a more lively tone, changing the mood that had become rather gloomy. "Terrible pessimists, the lot of you." He reached out for the book Isobel was reading and turned it around toward himself. "Luckily for you, I'm an optimist and optimism is contagious."

Isobel tilted her head to the side. "Does it extend to research?" She asked with a sigh.

Enzo sighed. "Well, let's find out," he said, turning his gaze to the book. "One pesky golden thread can't be the only magical phenomenon on this planet that can't be figured out, eh?"

xxxdelenaxxx

"I'd say a field trip is a great idea," Bonnie said after a moment of silence that followed Jeremy's proposition. "But I'd also say a field trip to the very place where you died _and_ where we left someone to die, _probably_ means you need therapy."

Jeremy laughed under his breath. "Does it mean you're going?"

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at him. "To keep an eye on you. Because I find your enthusiasm and cheerfulness highly suspicious."

"Fair enough," Jeremy said with a smile. "And remember, it's a no magic allowed trip, which means no mentioning of time travel, magical threads and such."

"Right. Is talking about Silas allowed? Or we're just going to pretend our pen pals from the geography lovers forum recommended that island to us? And are Stefan and I even allowed in the car? Or is the car humans-only and we have to follow you on roller-skates?"

"See? That's why I'm very happy you're going. I'm sure everyone else is just going to be cranky," Jeremy said with a smile before heading out of the room. "I'm going to pack. You should go pack too. We're leaving tonight."

xxxdelenaxxx

Every minute of waiting for Elena dragged, but Damon tried to remind himself that she was just spending some time with her sister, something she would be doing quite often from now on, so there was no other solution than to be patient.

Fortunately, not even an hour had passed before Elena returned and Damon barely had the time to stand up before she dashed into his arms.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, Elena slanted her lips against his in an ardent, passionate kiss that made thousands of suns explode behind his closed eyelids.

"What was that for?" Damon panted under his breath, smiling against Elena's lips.

"I had a really awful conversation and I needed it," Elena replied, trying to return his smile, but not really succeeding.

Damon's smile turned into a worried frown. "Awful? Why?"

Elena sighed. "My twin sister's behaving as if she was twenty years older than me."

"Stefan's behaving like an older brother since he was six," Damon said in an attempt to cheer Elena up.

She smiled a little.

Lifting his hand to stroke Elena's hair, Damon started smoothing out the locks he'd tangled with his fingers during the kiss.

"She must have been very worried when you had vanished from home. And then the moment she found you, she also found out you weren't coming back, because you were marrying someone you just met. It's understandable she is concerned."

"I know. I told her just that and I tried to explain to her that she had no reason to be worried, but she didn't seem to hear what I was saying."

"Let me talk to her," Damon offered after a moment of consideration. "It's difficult to trust someone you haven't exchanged a single word with," he added with a reassuring smile.

"I don't know how anyone can not trust you at first sight," Elena said with a frown.

Damon laughed under his breath. "So you trusted me at first sight?" He asked, pressing tiny kisses to Elena's lips, brushing his mouth across hers back and forth.

Elena's eyes fluttered shut. "Yes," she replied in a firm, quiet voice, shivering at Damon's touch, his hands skimming across her back and arms in an uneven manner that was setting her skin on fire.

"I forgot to ask you... before announcing it in front of everyone. Is next Saturday alright with you, Elena?" Damon asked, squinting a little, grazing the sides of her face with the backs of his fingers.

Elena pursed her lips in a pensive grimace. "No, you're right, you should've asked me earlier, because I'd be in favor of a different date," she said speculatively, but with enough amusement sparkling in her eyes that Damon just continued listening to her with a smile.

"What date would it be?" He asked, pulling Elena back into his arms and tightening his embrace around her..

Elena grinned. "Tomorrow!"

They smiled at each other brightly and kissed.

"I'd marry you the day before we met if that was possible," Damon whispered ardently and they were about to kiss again when someone opened the door to the room.

"I'm sorry," Emily excused herself upon noticing them, quickly closing the door behind her.

Elena looked toward the door for a few more moments and then after pressing a quick kiss to Damon's lips and telling him there was something she had to ask Emily about, she rushed after her.

xxxdelenaxxx

Having checked that Hope was asleep, Liz walked downstairs and into the living room where she reached out to turn on the light.

She gasped at the sight of someone sitting in an armchair by the window.

"I'm sorry, I should've said something," Freya said, straightening out her legs hidden under the blanket in her lap. "But I drifted away in my thoughts and-"

Liz interrupted her with a wave of her hand. "It's fine. I'm not easy to scare," she added with a smile, grabbing one of the pillows and handing it to Freya.

"Of course," Freya said, returning her smile. "Thank you," she added, taking the pillow from her. "I didn't want to run into Klaus, that's why I thought I'd stay here for the night."

"Everyone is asleep. You can safely tiptoe upstairs unnoticed," Liz said, sitting down in an armchair across from Freya who glanced at the CD in Liz' hands.

"I'm afraid there's a sleepless night ahead of me. Would you mind company watching the movie?"

"I don't know if you're in the mood for this particular movie," Liz replied, tapping the cover with an amused smile flitting across her face. "It's the recording of my funeral."

"That sounds like a really good movie," Freya said after a pause and they exchanged stifled chuckles.

"Caroline wouldn't be too happy I'm watching it, that's why I thought I'd do that now that she's asleep," Liz explained in a conspiratorial whisper, glancing toward the door.

Freya nodded. "You found it somewhere?"

"Damon and Elena left it with their letter to me. Well, I'm sure it was Damon's idea," she corrected herself with a snort. "Apparently, it was a very neat ceremony," Liz added with a slightly theatrical hint of pride in her voice that made Freya smile.

"I'm sure it was."

"You're welcome to watch it with me if you want," Liz offered and then narrowed her eyes at Freya in a warm smile. "Are you alright?" She asked softly. "You seem... sad? Worried?"

"I'm trying to figure out what I should do. Choosing sides was never my strong suit," Freya said slowly, looking away with a wistful smile. "I used to think that when I'd find my family everything would be easy. We would be together. Always on the same side," she whispered with a bitter smile. "But life's never that easy, is it?"

"Depends what kind of side you're trying to choose."

"The right side?" Freya said with a deliberate trace of doubt in her tone. She shook her head with a wry snort. "I want to do the right thing, but I also want to do the right thing by both of my brothers. And I don't know if that's possible. I spoke with Elijah today," she continued in a low voice, her eyes absently following the patterns on the carpet. "I think he wants to do the right thing, but he wants to do the right thing behind Klaus' back and I think we should at least try talking to him first."

"Sounds reasonable to me."

"Except that Elijah doesn't think there's a chance for Klaus to agree with his point of view."

"And you think there is?"

"I don't know. But are secrets and betrayals ever a good solution to anything?"

Liz smiled briefly in understanding.

"Elijah found a way to free Hope's mother from her curse," Freya said quietly after a longer moment of silence. "But there is a price to be paid."

"There is always a price," Liz pointed out with a sigh.

"Only in this case..." Freya shifted her eyes to Liz, her voice heavy with a strange mixture of hope and anxiety. "The price is huge and it would change everything." She paused and then added in a solemn tone. "For everyone."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Emily, please, wait!"

Elena caught up with Emily in the hallway, giving her a small smile when Emily slowly turned around.

"I just wanted to ask you... I saw how you helped Hazel, how you healed her hands. You have a gift."

Emily shook her head. "I didn't do anything," she muttered, turning to leave, but Elena stopped her again.

"I won't tell anyone, if that's what you're worried about. I just thought... that if you have that kind of gift... I just wanted to know... what did you see when I touched you? You seemed taken aback by something you saw and whatever it was, maybe it could help me remember?"

Glancing right and left, Emily appeared impatient to leave, but eagerness in Elena's voice and the way she was looking into her eyes with all sincerity seemed to be stopping her.

"Katherine told me many things about my past, but maybe you saw something she doesn't know?" Elena continued. "Something that could help me figure out how, why I left my home?"

"I didn't see much," Emily murmured, barely looking at her. "It was just a flash, just a glimmer of a vision," she added reluctantly, scanning the corridor with wary eyes, as if she couldn't stop making sure they were alone.

"But you did see something," Elena interjected, her eyes brightening with hope. "What did you see, Emily?"

For a few moments Emily was standing very still, scrutinizing Elena with her intent gaze, trying to decide if she should speak at all.

"When I touched you I saw... I saw that you and your baby are not from here, not from... _now_ ," she whispered with a grimace of confusion, as if she didn't understand herself what it was exactly that she was saying.

Elena's heart skipped a beat, her breath catching in her throat a moment before the words fully registered in her mind.

"Me and... my baby?" She echoed, stupefied, her attention immediately drawn to only one aspect of Emily's reply.

Emily narrowed her eyes at her. "Yes," she confirmed in a low, steady voice and then added before walking off. "You are with child."


	25. Chapter 25

A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for all the amazing reviews! :):):)

& In reply to a couple of recurring comments/questions: Well, I certainly hope Damon & Elena will get their memories back one day ;) As for Damon & Elena coming back to the "right" century... careful what you wish for! lol

 **Chapter 25**

"Have you seen Elena?" Damon asked, running into Stefan half-way through the stairs.

"No," Stefan answered a little absently.

He kept glancing over his shoulder as if his thoughts were still elsewhere.

"Elena went to talk to Emily, but it's been an hour and now I can't find neither of them," Damon explained with a perplexed look on his face. He glanced around the staircase before returning his attention to Stefan who didn't seem to be listening to him. Tilting his head to the side, Damon put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Stefan? Are you alright?"

"I talked to Katherine," Stefan replied after a pause, his frown deepening and Damon sighed, guessing that Katherine must have shared with Stefan her thoughts on the upcoming wedding.

"What did she say?" Damon asked, thinking that knowing the arguments in advance could perhaps help him prepare for the conversation.

"That's just the thing," Stefan said slowly, lifting his gaze from the floor to Damon's face. "I don't remember."

Damon blinked. "What do you mean you don't remember?"

"I know I talked to her," Stefan said, glancing over his shoulder again, as if looking into the corridor upstairs where the conversation had taken place could make him remember it. "But... I just can't remember anything of that conversation."

"There is something going on in here," Damon muttered with a worried grimace. "Elena and I don't remember how we found ourselves in the river. Now you. There is something going on in Mystic Falls that affects people's memories."

Stefan didn't look very convinced, but his own unpleasant experience with forgetting something that had happened minutes ago kept him from expressing his doubt over Damon's slightly too phantasmagorical for his taste theory. After all, he couldn't think of a more plausible or specific one anyway.

"I need to talk to Elena's sister too, but I need to find Elena first," Damon said, turning around. "If you see her-"

"I will tell her you are looking for her," Stefan finished for him with a brief smile. "It feels horrible not to remember something you know you should remember," he added as an afterthought, his expression becoming grim again.

Damon nodded. "Yes," he agreed. "We will get back to that later," he called out to Stefan before heading outside to continue his search for Elena.

xxxdelenaxxx

"There is a long way ahead of us, so if no one is going to speak, this trip is not going to be very successful," Jeremy said, taking a place across from Desmond, Lily, Stefan, John and Jenna who were all sitting in the same row at the airport, already near the gate, waiting for their flight that was still a couple of hours away.

They could've limited their transportation to cars and boats, but he thought that this could be a nice opportunity to familiarize Desmond with air travel.

"If you're interested, I can provide you with four reasons why I'm not very chatty," Jenna snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.

Jeremy looked to Bonnie, who was sitting next to him, for support, but she seemed too preoccupied with her phone to pay attention to the conversation.

Lily and Desmond were also not very talkative, but he could understand that and was also hoping it would change over time.

"First of all," Jenna started without waiting for Jeremy to prompt her to do so, "you didn't tell me _he_ was going with us," she said, pointing to John who only inhaled and exhaled slowly, a resigned look on his face. "Secondly, you didn't tell me we were going to Nova Scotia!?"

"Technically, that island is two hundred miles off the Nova Scotia mainland," Stefan observed matter-of-factly in a low voice, earning a quick look from Jenna who carried on.

"Thirdly, Bonnie said you'd _died_ there, so as your ex legal guardian, this choice of a destination for a fun excursion has me concerned. And lastly, I don't need to go on a bonding trip! I love you, I hate him, I like Bonnie and Stefan and I'm pretty sure I can get along with Damon's parents. As you can see, I have all of my emotions one-hundred percent figured out. And set in stone," she added stiffly.

"Right," Jeremy nodded.

"Why do you hate him so much anyway?" Bonnie suddenly asked and Jeremy gave her a mockingly surprised look over the fact that she finally decided to take part in the discussion.

Jenna clenched her jaw and for a few moments looked unsure if she should answer the question.

"Let's not-" John tried to sound reconciliatory, but his attempt seemed to actually only provoke Jenna to speak.

"We slept together, then he didn't call for two weeks and when one day he showed up back in town he was like 'Grayson said you found my reading glasses. I've been looking for them all week.'"

"You need reading glasses?" Jeremy gave John a questioning look.

Jenna narrowed her eyes at him. "This is not funny."

"And that's it?" Bonnie interjected, shifting her eyes between Jenna and the screen of her phone.

Blinking in indignation, Jenna glared at Bonnie while Jeremy was trying to keep a straight face.

"Sorry." Bonnie waved her hand in an apologetic gesture, grimacing a little. "Our sense of morality has forever been crippled by ubiquitous bloodshed and mayhem."

"If that will make you feel any better, I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings," John said flatly, glancing at Jenna who only snorted in response.

Jeremy opened his mouth to speak, but a sound of an incoming text message diverted his attention.

"Who are you texting with?" He finally asked the question that was bothering him for at least two hours now.

For a second it seemed that Bonnie didn't even hear him, but then she looked up.

"No one," she said automatically, straightening up. Jeremy gave her a no-nonsense look and she rolled her eyes. "Enzo."

Jeremy widened his eyes at her. "Enzo?! Why?"

"He's looking through Isobel's archive with her," Bonnie said at last in a low, defensive tone. "He's just sending me updates. They're trying to find something on that thread- Hey!" Bonnie exclaimed when Jeremy snatched the phone out of her hand.

"You mentioned the thread and that's breaking the rules," Jeremy replied, beginning to run away from Bonnie who started chasing him around the newspaper stand.

"Don't be ridiculous! Give it back!"

"It's a no magic allowed trip, remember?"'

"Oh really? You're such a hypocrite!" Bonnie shouted, stomping her foot. A few people passing by slowed down to look at her, but then hurried away when she shot them a glare. "You didn't mind magic very much when you had Stefan compel the security guards to ignore the fact that some people here don't have IDs," she added in an angry whisper.

"A death certificate is a form of an ID," John pointed out stoically.

"But it's not a photo ID," Bonnie deadpanned. "Give me back my phone!" She raised her voice again, glaring at Jeremy as seriously as she could.

"I'm confiscating it for now-" Jeremy started, but trailed off when the phone buzzed in his hand.

"Just read it and see if it's something important or... Enzo being Enzo," Bonnie said with an exasperated frown.

Jeremy rolled his eyes and reluctantly lifted the phone to read the message.

"What is it?" Bonnie asked, noticing Jeremy's eyebrows knitting in thought.

"He asks if you know what _stamina vitae_ is," Jeremy said, glancing up at Bonnie.

Desmond's eyes darted to Lily who seemed to shudder at the expression.

"Stamina vitae?" Bonnie shook her head with a confused grimace. "Give me back my phone," she repeated after a pause, giving Jeremy a determined look. "I need to call Grams."

xxxdelenaxxx

Damon wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad sign, but he found Elena by the river where they had met. She was sitting on a rock near the water edge, her hair curtaining the side of her face in such a way that he only noticed her tear-stained cheeks the moment she looked up at him when he called her name.

"Elena," he repeated in an anxious gasp, reaching out for her when she rose to her feet. "What happened?"

Elena opened her mouth to speak but when Damon cupped her face in his hands she just closed her eyes and leaned into his touch.

For a brief second she considered not saying anything at all. For a moment it felt so tempting to just brush off the question and make the truth a secret that would always be gnawing at her, but at least it wouldn't ruin everything... But then of course it would. That's what secrets always did.

Reluctantly, she opened her eyes, the warmth of Damon's hands on her skin soothing the unpleasant cold chills surging through her.

Looking into his eyes, it wasn't even possible not to tell the truth. She felt that every moment of their short acquintance was truthful and real and she would never want to taint it with lying by omission or otherwise.

Elena covered Damon's hands with her palms and slowly slid them off her face. "We can't get married," she whispered with a grimace, her voice faltering despite her best efforts to keep it steady.

It didn't feel as if the ground was slipping from under his feet. It felt as if the entire world around him shifted and collapsed, leaving only flakes of ashes falling over his head from the darkest sky.

"What do you mean, Elena?" Damon asked in a low, hesitant voice, having difficulties in even formulating the question since the words he'd just heard made no sense to him. "Why?" He added breathlessly, grabbing her hand on an impulse when he noticed that she was about to take off the engagement ring he'd given her. "Is it about what your sister said?" He asked hastily.

Elena shook her head, trying to wiggle her hand out of Damon's grasp, but he only tightened his hold on her hand and Elena looked up at him prompted by the calm deliberateness of the gesture.

"Don't," he said with a grimace and a hint of hope in his tone, because the longer he looked at Elena's face the more certain he was that it wasn't her feelings that had changed.

"Damon-"

"Elena. Did you get your memories back?" He asked, struck by the thought and suddenly overcome by fear that perhaps there was some kind of a real obstacle standing in their way.

"No, no, I didn't." Elena stopped trying to snatch her hand free and used her other one to cup the side of Damon's face.

He inwardly exhaled with relief. "So what is it? Elena?" He gave her an encouraging smile that made tears glimmer in her eyes.

"I just found out something about my past... about... me and I don't know if... if we can still get married..." Elena said in a rushed whisper, thinking that perhaps she shouldn't be making it more difficult for either of them, but she couldn't help settling comfortably into Damon's embrace when he wrapped his arms around her.

"Why don't you let me decide," Damon offered tenderly, feeling hopeful again.

He couldn't imagine anything, anything at all that could ever tear them apart.

"I'm expecting a child."

The wind tossed Elena's hair into Damon's face and they both closed their eyes for a second, so Elena wasn't sure what was the first expression that appeared on Damon's face following her confession, but when she opened her eyes he was holding her cheeks in his hands again, his eyes wandering all over her face with anxious, affectionate intensity.

"Is that the only reason why you said we couldn't be together?" He asked carefully, every word quiet and even as if he was worried that any emphasis could negatively impact her answer.

"Yes," Elena confirmed tonelessly, trying not to overinterpret the look in his eyes.

But then there were also his hands on her face, his thumbs gently grazing her skin.

His lips on her forehead that remained there for a few more moments before he looked at her. Elena held her breath.

"I love you, Elena," Damon whispered earnestly and she still wasn't able to catch her breath trying to convince herself that she wasn't making up his words and merely hearing what she wanted to hear. "And I will love your child."

"Damon-"

"Our child," he corrected herself and Elena exhaled sharply, causing a few tears to roll down her cheeks.

Damon leaned down and kissed the tears off her face. "What did you think I would say?" He asked quietly against her skin, pressing a few feathery-light kisses to Elena's lips before looking up at her.

"I don't know," Elena whispered in a matching tone, smiling a little because he was smiling. "I just thought... What is your father going to say? What is everyone-"

"We don't have to tell him. We don't have to tell anyone. Later on, they will all probably think that that was why we got married so fast, so let's them think that."

Damon gave Elena another smile and then hugged her very tight, closing his arms around her and stroking her hair in a soothing gesture.

Looking onto the river sparkling below, Damon felt his heart clench at the thought what Elena might have gotten through. He only hoped it didn't cross her mind to consider that horrifying possibility.

As much as it hurt to think that there could have been someone else in her past, in her heart before, that pain was nothing compared to fearing that something horrible might have happened to her. Unfortunately, the circumstances under which they had met seemed to only validate the worst-case scenario. It was a blessing in disguise that she didn't remember anything, then. All he could do was to ensure that all the memories they would make together would be worth remembering and that nothing that would happen to her from now on would be ever better left forgotten.

"Now we just need to compel your sister to believe I'm worthy of your hand," Damon said, pressing his cheek to the top of Elena's head.

"We will," Elena replied with a smile, burying her face in his chest.

xxxdelenaxxx

"What did your grandmother say?" Jenna asked, leaning over her seat and watching Bonnie struggle with her safety bell with more anger than the task required.

Bonnie was sitting next to Desmond in the row behind Jeremy and Jenna with Stefan and Lily next to them across the aisle and John sitting alone behind them.

"She said she didn't know what _stamina vitae_ was and that there was nothing I could do about it," Bonnie replied, finally snapping the seatbelt closed.

"That there was nothing you could do about what?" Jenna asked with a frown, reaching down to pull up the plastic shutter covering the window next to Desmond who gave her a small smile before glancing out of the window and at the plane taxiing nearby.

"Exactly!" Bonnie said with a trace of bitter triumph in her voice. "I think Grams knows if not everything, then at least something about that thread and she just doesn't want to tell me."

"I think you're just overinterpreting her worrying about you worrying about that thread so much," Jeremy said, peering at Bonnie through the gap between the seats.

Bonnie grabbed a pillow from behind her head and stuck it right into Jeremy's face.

Jenna stifled a smile and then returned to her seat when a flight attendant passing by asked her to do so.

Leaning down, Bonnie opened the bag she'd placed under the seat in front of her and as soundlessly as possible, in order not to alert Jeremy to whom the seat in front belonged, she pulled a stash of papers out of it.

Desmond shifted his eyes from the window to Bonnie, quickly recognizing the pages from the Grimoire of Antecedents, only that these weren't tattered and yellowed, but white, each page printed on a separate sheet of paper.

"Your grandmother probably just doesn't want you to get your hopes up and then after some time discover there's nothing to be done," Desmond said quietly.

Bonnie's eyes darted to him. "I don't want to be rude, but if you're going to be yet another person-"

"Actually, I was going to ask if I could help," Desmond interrupted her with a trace of humor in his voice that she found comfortingly familiar.

With a smirk, Bonnie split the stash of papers in her hand in half and handed one half to Desmond.

"I think we'll get along just fine," she said with a wink and then hastily grabbed a blanket and three it over all the papers in their lap when Jeremy pulled out the pillow from between the seats and inched his face close to the gap.

"Is everything alright?" He asked, giving Bonnie a suspicious look.

"Awesome," Bonnie said, waving a duty-free brochure in front of his face. "We're going to get very drunk and buy a few watches. You?"

xxxdelenaxxx

" _Elijah,_

 _Ha, didn't think you'd get a letter, did you? But there are encounters that matter in ways that stretch through time and space and so we thought we should tell you that it was mostly a joyride to know you._

 _Your integrity is a gift. Carry it with you, as we will carry the certainty that in the end you can always trust someone who is willing to break all the rules to save those they love._

 _In an ideal world we'd invite you to visit our restaurant in New York and we'd be looking forward to being invited to Hope's vernissage in Paris, alas this is not an ideal world, so you're stuck helping Klaus trying to make New Orleans a number one (instead of a final haha) tourist destination. Best of luck with that._

 _We hope you'll find a way to free Hayley._

 _xoxo_

 _Damon & Elena"_

"They were in a good mood. A desirable state of mind before such a journey." Slowly, Elijah folded back the letter, a ghost of a wistful smile flickering across his face. "Thank you for that," he said, looking up at Liz while putting the letter into a pocket inside his suit.

Liz shrugged. "I was designated a keeper of remaining correspondence," she replied with a faint smile and then glanced over her shoulder toward the room entrance when she heard the front door open.

Freya and Elijah exchanged looks.

"I don't know of any other place on earth where a mayor would be asked to house sit," Caroline's voice resounded in the room before she walked inside, followed by Klaus. "Jeremy said they couldn't remember if they turned off the lights. Hilarious, right?" She added conversationally despite being a little caught off guard by seeing Elijah in her living room.

She wasn't sure what to think, but when she looked at Liz, the expression on her face reassured her that everything was alright.

"Hello, Caroline," Elijah greeted her and then shifted his eyes to Klaus. "Niklaus," he said with a small sigh as if he was bracing himself for some kind of a nuisance.

"On the bright side, we managed to restock the supplies," Klaus said, indicating a bottle of bourbon in his hand. "And I can't help but notice that it seems to have been the right choice, seeing how we have an unannounced guest over," he added, smirking at Elijah.

"I assure you that I announced myself," Elijah replied flatly, glancing at Liz with a smile.

"Uncle Elijah!"

Klaus raised his eyebrows and to Caroline's amusement pouted a little when Hope dashed past them and run straight into Elijah's arms.

"I thought you were asleep," Elijah said, lifting Hope from the floor.

"I was. But I woke up," Hope explained, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "And uncle Elijah, do you know what happened? Damon and Elena traveled _back in time_!" Hope exclaimed, widening her eyes at Elijah.

"I know, I just heard," Elijah replied, smiling at Hope, who wrapped her arms around his neck and continued speaking so quickly she was running out of breath toward the end of each sentence.

"And guess what, I'm a witch! I can see the _magical_ thread, just like Aunt Freya and Bonnie and her Grandma can! And I was on vacation with Damon and Elena! We were swimming in the ocean and we were building sand castles! And I had _all_ the sand molds from the store, but we had to leave them behind, because Kai attacked us! He was pretending to be Damon, but Elena and I figured it all out and then he _attacked_ us. And then Enzo knocked him _out_ , but we couldn't take the sand molds, because we were in a hurry, so I just took the Bears. Elena's Bear looks like a doctor, because she wants to be a doctor. My Bear-"

"Sweetheart, I'm sure Uncle Elijah will be delighted to hear all about that tomorrow," Klaus cut in, clasping his hands behind his back.

Elijah glanced at him, stifling a smile. "Yes, this is actually a wonderful idea. Why don't you go back to sleep, since it's very late," Elijah said, glancing at the clock and causing Hope to do the same, "and then you can tell me everything tomorrow. Would that be alright?"

After a moment of consideration Hope nodded and after saying and waving good night to everyone while walking backwards across the room, she went upstairs with Liz, leaving Klaus, Caroline, Elijah and Freya alone in the living room.

"Well, I'll let you talk, then," Caroline said with a brief smile, about to excuse herself, but Elijah stopped her.

"No, Caroline, please, stay. This conversation may actually be of some interest to you as well."

Caroline glanced at Klaus, whose amused expression became instantly suspicious as he narrowed his eyes at Elijah.

"You have my attention," Klaus said, extending his arms. "What is it?"

"Could we sit down?" Freya proposed, shifting her eyes between everyone.

"I don't really like being ambushed while sitting down," Klaus replied with a mirthless smirk.

Freya tilted her head to the side with a small sigh.

"For our sister's sake, since it was her idea to talk to you," Elijah said, glancing at Freya. "Could you perhaps find it in yourself not to make dramatic assumptions before hearing a word of what we have to say?"

"Well, I assume you found a way to release Hayley from her curse, in which case, by all means, carry on," Klaus said with a smile that disappeared off his eyes when he lowered his voice. "But also bear in mind that should she try taking my daughter away from me, her fate will deteriorate very quickly."

"Niklaus, if it was merely about freeing Hayley I assure you I wouldn't think of devoting any time at all to asking for your thoughts on the subject," Elijah replied in a calm, toneless voice.

Klaus smiled. "Ah. So you want something from me?"

"As a matter of fact yes, your blood, however, that could be obtained without your consent," Elijah said flatly and the utter seriousness in his eyes made Klaus' expression grow serious as well. "The reason why we're having this conversation is because Freya believes that you're capable of making the right choice and I hope you won't disappoint her."

Caroline looked at Freya who was standing by the window with her arms crossed over her chest, a tense expression on her face.

"What's the cost of freeing Hayley?" Caroline asked, shifting her eyes between Freya and Elijah.

"It's not exactly a cost," Freya said after a pause, glancing at Elijah.

Klaus snorted humorlessly. "It's hardly time for riddles," he said, pointing to the clock. "So if you could be more specific," he added with a grimace, a hint of impatience flashing in his eyes.

"There's no remedy for the spell Hayley's under. I have searched everywhere," Elijah said quietly, looking away, as if he was at once recalling all of his failed attempts during the last several years. "It's not possible to reverse that spell. No counter spell exists."

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that," Klaus said flippantly, earning a narrowed-eyed look from Freya. "I really am," he reassured her, putting a mildly offended look on his face.

"Then you should be glad to know that there is a way to free her," Elijah said, his eyes fixed on Klaus who shook his head in exaggerated confusion.

"I'm sorry, but didn't you just say-"

"I said there is no way to reverse that particular spell," Elijah interrupted him in a low, firm voice, glancing at Caroline who was listening to the exchange with a deepening frown on her face. "But there is a way to reverse all the spells, including this one."

Klaus blinked and then laughed briefly under his breath. "I'm sorry, Elijah, but I'm afraid you lost me," he said, looking to Caroline who also seemed baffled by Elijah's words.

" _Tabula rasa_. I'm sure you're familiar with the term. That's the name of the spell. Think of it... as a master spell," Freya cut in and Caroline felt shivers run up her spine, whether more at Freya's words or the solemn tone of her voice, she didn't know.

"It will lift all the curses, erase all the spells," Elijah continued in a suddenly earnest voice.

"It will get rid of all magic," Freya said quietly, holding Klaus' gaze.

"No more magic. No more curses and spells. Blood-lust and immortality will no longer exist. The world will be free of all things supernatural. All the vampires, hybrids, werewolves, witches become human. Hayley will be free and so will everyone else. The world will be cured of all evil that our family brought into it. Niklaus." Elijah took a few steps toward Klaus and stopped right in front of him. "Not only will your daughter get her mother back. But she'll also get to live in a world as it should be, before our parents wrecked the natural order of life and death. Now we have a chance to make it right."

Elijah fell silent, watching the unreadable expression on Klaus' face, hoping to see a flicker of understanding in his eyes. Caroline was also watching him from the side. Freya held her breath.

Klaus' mouth quirked into the slightest smile. "You're both mad," he whispered at last, glancing at Freya.

Elijah hastily turned around. "Are you really that keen on Hope inheriting all of your enemies?" He exclaimed with a flourish of his hand. "We're on the brink of a war between sirelines. You know that. Stricts are on their way to New Orleans. Everything is falling apart. Universal hatred and a vicious circle of revenge, great inheritance indeed!"

"Do you suppose our enemies are going to be rendered harmless just because you turn them human?" Klaus exclaimed with an incredulous huff. "The absurdity of your naivety would've been amusing if it wasn't so dangerously foolish! Did you really think, even for a second, that I'd condemn my daughter to complete defenselessness in exchange for your aimless illusions of an ordinary existence?"

"Hope's defenselessness or yours?" Elijah retorted sternly, but then added in a voice lacking all sharpness. "What are you afraid of? Losing the people who stand by you out of fear? Because these are the only people you might lose. Whatever power you think we possess, these are just stones, roped to our necks, dragging us down. We didn't want that, Niklaus. Don't you remember? We didn't want any of that. It happened to us. But it doesn't need to happen to anyone else, ever. Isn't that worth something? Isn't that worth everything? Wouldn't you want your daughter to be proud of you?"

Klaus held Elijah's gaze without blinking, his jaw clenched. "You're talking to someone who doesn't exist, brother." The words seemed to clink as if they were made of glass and Caroline felt a twinge of sorrow at the words rolling off Klaus' tongue with practiced ease, each syllable drenched in casual self-loathing. "There's nothing in me, nothing among the things that I have done that would make my daughter proud." He paused. "I can't make her proud," he said in a raspy whisper that turned menacing in a split second. "But I can keep her safe. And I don't advise you to ever try interfering with that."

After glaring at Elijah for a few more seconds, Klaus abruptly turned around and stormed out of the room.

xxxdelenaxxx

The door was left ajar, but Damon tried not to look inside before announcing himself by knocking on the door.

"Please, come in," Katherine called out in a silvery voice, glancing into the mirror in front of her before gliding up from her chair. "I was hoping we would have a chance to talk."

Damon was about to start by asking whether Katherine remembered what she and Stefan had talked about, but the question escaped him when his attention was drawn to Katherine closing the door behind him and stepping right in front of him.

"First of all..." She trailed off, stifling a giggle when Damon took an instinctive step back, putting some distance between them. "Do I frighten you, Mr. Salvatore?"

"No, I just-" Damon frowned, confused by Katherine's behavior when she started advancing toward him, apparently amused by him walking backwards away from her.

"What now?" She simpered, looking pleased with herself when she backed him against the wall.

Perplexed and caught off guard by the strangeness of the situation, Damon decided to resort to the only thing that seemed reasonable at the moment: explaining why he came to talk to Elena's sister in the first place.

"I came to say that I love Elena and that while our engagement may seem rushed, our feelings are genuine and our marriage is going to be happy and strong," he said a little awkwardly, too flustered by Katherine's behavior to carefully choose every word.

He was hoping to express himself more eloquently, but what was even more disappointing, it was the fact that it seemed he'd have to worry about Katherine listening to him at all.

He wasn't sure if it was anything he'd said, although it obviously must've been, but for some reason a coquettish glimpse in Katherine's eyes was suddenly replaced by boredom.

"How dull," Katherine sighed, pursing her lips and Damon blinked, quite sure he must've heard her wrong. Then her tone changed steely. "Tell me why you really want to marry her," she said and Damon frowned at how strange Katherine suddenly looked like, as if something was happening with her eyes.

"I love her," Damon repeated.

Katherine wrinkled her nose. "Tilt your head to the right. Now left."

Damon did just that and Katherine clapped her hands.

"Why did I do that?" Damon murmured, a nauseatous feeling coming over him.

He didn't even think about Katherine's bizarre request to tilt his head and yet he followed her words all the same.

"At least that!" Katherine said with a smile. "I was worried there was something going on with everyone in this town, but it seems that only my sheep-headed doppelgänger is for some reason immune to compulsion."

"Doppelgänger?" Damon echoed, becoming more and more confused with every passing second.

"Oh, before we begin, you are not going to remember any of this, not a word I say until you leave this room," Katherine said, her pupils dilating. "And now, you'll be telling me the truth in answer to my every question."

"What is happening?" Damon asked, sensing that something was wrong, but his mind was becoming simultaneously hazy and frozen, his thoughts dragging as if they were made of sticky threads clinging to each other, making it impossible to _think_.

"Nothing much. Right now I just need information. Maybe there will be time for other things after I solve a few problems of mine," Katherine said with a playful smirk, lifting her hand to Damon's face and compelling him to remain still when he recoiled at her touch. "You _are_ handsome." She smacked her lips and grimaced. "But so dull. She's dull too, so I can see why you like each other. Unfortunately, you won't be living happily ever after." She made a mockingly sympathetic face. "I'm hoping to trade her for my freedom. If I give Klaus a human doppelgänger, maybe he'll at last leave me alone," she said, more to herself than to Damon, looking away from him and squinting into the distance.

After a moment Katherine seemed to shake herself out of her reverie.

"So you can see how I don't need anyone to care about her enough to ask questions when she... disappears," Katherine said with a glint of amusement returning to her eyes. "She's as good as dead. But I can't compel her to break off your engagement and if I compelled you to do that she might start suspecting something. So I'm just going to make sure that after tomorrow marrying you will be the last thing she would ever want." Katherine drew a breath and then smiled cheerfully, intensifying her gaze. "Listen carefully. This is what you are going to say and do tomorrow."


	26. Chapter 26

A/N: Thank you so so so much for your wonderful reviews! :]:]:]

Dear Guest: All I can say is... keep calm and read on ;) And to everyone else who might be worried: do I seem like the kind of person who would ruin a wedding? An engagement, sure. But a wedding? lol

A little late, but I guess it's never too late to wish everyone a **Happy Easter!** :):):)

 **Chapter 26**

"Where are we going?" Elena asked, still smiling, although there was a trace of confusion in her tone now that she had asked the question three times already and was yet to receive an answer.

She was holding onto Damon's hand as they were trudging through the forest after leaving the house over an hour ago, the lush green beauty of their surroundings beginning to get overshadowed by an unsettling feeling stirring up within her.

At first, Elena was certain that Damon had some kind of a surprise planned, since he'd proposed for them to go for a walk in the exact moment when the clock had struck noon.

For some reason, however, he hadn't warned her they were going into such a remote part of the forest. After a few minutes the hem of her pastel dress was dirty, her sleeves were getting caught in the branches and the fabric was beginning to tear in several places.

She would've thought it all part of the adventure if it wasn't for Damon brushing off everything she was saying and merely glancing at her over his shoulder from time to time. Something was wrong.

"Damon," Elena said with a frown, but this time instead of limiting herself to trying to draw his attention she stopped abruptly in her tracks, causing him to stop too.

"We're not there yet," Damon said dispassionately, turning around to look at her and Elena blinked, caught off guard by the strange way in which he was looking at her.

From the moment they had met, every time he would look at her, she always felt like he was looking at and _into_ her. But now it felt as if he was looking _through_ her, without seeing her at all.

"But _where_ are we going?" Elena repeated her question, beginning to worry that Damon might've had some unpleasant conversation in the morning that was now affecting his mood. But if that was the case, why wouldn't he tell her about it right away?

"You have been whining since we left," Damon said with sigh, giving her a sour smile. "Aren't you tired of your own voice by now? Because I am."

Stupefied, Elena was staring at him for a longer while before she chuckled weakly. Surely, he must have been joking and she almost, _almost_ -

But then Elena's smile faded when she noticed that Damon's only reaction to her laughter was a blank stare. He took an unhurried step closer to her.

"Damon, what's going on? You're acting strange."

With a sinking feeling, she tried to interpret the look in his eyes, suddenly struck by the thought that after having an entire night to be alone with his thoughts, Damon might've changed his mind about their wedding. Perhaps everything he'd said yesterday had been said on an impulse or out of kindness and now that he had time to think it all through, he was disappointed and upset.

But she couldn't believe that was it.

"Strange? How?" Damon asked, grasping Elena's hand and she thought he was merely taking her hand in his, but then she grimaced, his fingers closing around her wrist in a painful grip.

"Damon, you're hurting me," she whispered in bewilderment not understanding what was happening.

Everything he'd told her yesterday, everything that had happened between them since they had met, it was all beautiful and genuine. She felt like she knew him so well. It might seem naïve after such a short amount of time, but she was certain she _knew_ him and even if she was yet to see him upset, she was sure _this_ wasn't how he would behave if he was upset. He wouldn't lash out at her like that.

"I'm hurting you?" Damon snarled in a detached way that made Elena cringe. "I saved your life!" He added with a sardonic grimace that made no sense, because it didn't look his, it didn't look like he meant either his facial expressions or his words.

Elena felt a dull headache beginning to pulsate in her head. She felt like she was listening to a stranger. She held her breath when he inched his face closer to hers.

"And you didn't even thank me yet," Damon said in a low voice that Elena couldn't decide if it was more thrilling or menacing, his words and tone clashing with the proximity of his lips, with the fact that they were about to kiss, with that serene, undaunted certainty that he loved her and she loved him.

"And you didn't even thank me yet," Damon repeated, a peculiar, automatic quality to his voice.

Elena's eyes flickered to his and she was under the bizarre impression that he was waiting for her to say something, as if he couldn't proceed with his lines until she engaged in the exchange. As if... as if he was reciting the words instead of saying them.

"Why are you being like this?" Elena asked quietly with a frown, trying to free her hand.

"Because I'm tired of pretending to be someone else," Damon replied with a sneer that looked plastered onto his face in such an artificial way that Elena couldn't even find it in herself to start being afraid, because the overwhelming confusion was taking up all the space in her head.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm tired of lying, Elena," Damon said with a trace of angry earnestness in his voice. "And now that you agreed to marry me, I may as well tell you the truth," Damon continued with indifferent sternness. "Did you really believe that little story about me conveniently forgetting a few minutes of my life right before finding you in the river?" He snorted dryly, lifting his hand to her face. "When you hit your head against that stone I thought you were dead. I burned all of your blood-stained clothes. I threw your body into the water, but then you started moving. I have to say, I couldn't believe my good fortune when it turned out you forgot what had happened earlier."

Elena's face drenched of all color. Somewhere half-through Damon's speech she started having troubles following it, because what he was saying was completely abstract and absurd.

And there was also his hand lingering in the air near her face as if he was conflicted about what he wanted to do with it.

"What is it that you're saying?" Elena asked in a gasp, her eyes shifting to Damon's hand curling up into a fist instead of lightly grazing he cheek, like he'd done so many times.

Damon narrowed his eyes at her, tugging her toward him when Elena took an instinctive, wobbly step back, her heart pounding in her chest, shock and confusion bringing tears to her eyes.

"And you still don't remember, do you?" Damon tapped her nose with a condescending grimace before grabbing a fistful of her hair and trying to kiss her.

Despite everything, there was still an intrinsic sense of safety in his closeness, nonetheless, Elena gathered her resolve and pushed him away.

"What are you doing? What are you talking about? It's not true!"

She exhaled sharply. It was all some kind of a horrible nightmare she was going to wake up from. This wasn't Damon and this wasn't what had happened. It wasn't.

"We met in the forest," Damon reiterated with chilling calmness. "You seemed to be on the run, but I was in the mood to have a good time, so-"

Elena interrupted him with a stifled sob, covering her ears and shaking her head in desperate denial.

Her heart couldn't deceive her like that. It wasn't possible. With every fibre of her body she felt they belonged together. She loved him with all her heart and she felt that love emanate from him. She couldn't be that wrong.

She tried to force herself to remember something, anything that could shed any light on the events of that day when they had met, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember anything.

"And so I politely asked you not to scream," Damon continued, grabbing Elena's wrists and backing her against a tree.

She winced when her back collided painfully with the uneven, spiked surface.

A few green leaves floated down, some of them getting caught in Elena's hair and for a fleeting moment she wasn't sure she didn't only imagine anyway, she thought Damon froze, as if caught off guard by the sight. However, soon enough all traces of reverence were washed out of his gaze.

"But you did anyway," he seethed into her ear and Elena shuddered.

She didn't know what frightened her more: everything that she was hearing or the fact that in that moment, not in any moment, she couldn't make herself to feel any differently about him. There was only excruciating confusion raging in her head and a warm glow of love in her heart that she refused to believe she was the only one feeling it.

"This can't be true," Elena said in a voice heavy with tears. "I don't believe this."

"So I had to calm you down," Damon continued, ignoring her words. "I hope this time I won't have to do that."

With a smirk, he dragged his lips across her cheek, but before he kissed her, Elena slapped him.

xxxdelenaxxx

Caroline was waiting patiently for Klaus to walk out of Hope's room, but after an hour she decided to check if in order to avoid confronting anyone else this evening, Klaus didn't decide to read to Hope all the storybooks cover to cover.

Quietly, she pushed the door open, peered inside and chuckled under her breath at the sight of both Klaus and Hope fast asleep, Klaus' face buried into a stuffed bear Hope was holding in her arms, another bear lying on top of the book that seemed precariously close to sliding off Klaus' chest and onto the floor.

Stepping inside the room, Caroline carefully removed the book and the toys and gently moved Hope's head from Klaus' shoulder onto the pillow, turned off the lights and tried to wake Klaus up in a variety of decent ways, but to no avail.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, Caroline resigned herself to using her vampire strength and speed to transport Klaus out of the room and into the guest bedroom where she unceremoniously dropped him onto the bed.

She raised her eyebrows at him seemingly not waking up at that and merely burying his face in a pillow with a muted groan instead.

"I hope you're just avoiding talking to me, because considering your enemy count, being a heavy sleeper is not a promising way to survive."

"I did, however, get an upper hand quite a few times pretending to be one," Klaus replied in a muffled voice without moving his head.

"I'm not sure or rather I'm sure I'm not interested in detailed recapping of any of those situations," Caroline retorted.

Klaus lifted his cheek from the pillow and shot her a smirk over his shoulder. "Completely innocent, all of them, I assure you." With a sigh, he sat up and rubbed his eyes. "So what's the plan?" He asked, watching Caroline sit on the edge of bed. "Your turn trying to get me on board with my high–minded brother's terrible idea?"

"Whether it's a terrible idea it's up for a debate," Caroline said, squinting into the distance. "Either way, I'm postponing that conversation until tomorrow. I'm too tired today." She turned her head to look at him.

Klaus' lips curled up in a pout. "And here I was hoping for some persuasion attempts."

"I'm better at violence than persuasion," Caroline deadpanned.

"Violence is a form of persuasion," Klaus argued, his eyes laughing.

Caroline narrowed her eyes at him when he reached out to catch a lock of her hair in between his fingers.

"My mom would not approve of this conversation," Caroline muttered, trying to keep amusement out of her voice. "Or that," she added, glancing at Klaus' mouth before he brushed his lips against hers in a brief kiss.

"I think your mother likes me."

Caroline snorted before she opened her eyes. "No. She _tolerates_ you because _I_ like you."

Klaus smiled pensively with a glimpse of mischief in his eyes. "Hopefully both parts of that sentence are going to improve over time."

Then his smile turned into a frown and he looked startled and uncertain for a second when Caroline placed her hand on his cheek.

"That's not true, what you said earlier. There are things you can be proud of. Like not having a father to speak of, yet becoming the best father anyone could wish for."

Klaus stared at her for a few moments in silence before straightening up with a half-heartedly dismissive smile. "I suppose recklessly saving the child's mother no matter the cost is enclosed in the definition?"

"Of course it is." Caroline rose to her feet and walked up to the door. "As for the cost..." She turned around before stepping out of the room, a small smile flitting across her face. "You can have a thousand more birthdays," she said, mimicking Klaus' tone, her eyes warm. "Or a couple of dozens that count."

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Elena winced when she was tossed against the wall as soon as they entered a small cottage that looked abandoned and desolate, layers of dust covering pieces of washed-out furniture.

"This isn't you," she repeated stubbornly when Damon turned her around, trapping her between a discolored wall and his body.

She was beginning to feel afraid, but not because of him, but because it was becoming appallingly clear to her that something was very, very wrong, that what was happening was beyond their control and that she didn't know how to stop it.

"How do you know?" Damon snorted wryly. "It's been four days since we met."

"Five," Elena whispered automatically and Damon's mouth twitched, but his eyes remained fixed on her in a cold-hearted stare.

His eyes. Elena's eyes widened in dismay, because only now she realized how dark Damon's eyes were. She could barely make out any shade of blue. His light blue eyes now looked almost black.

She reached out to touch his face and gritted her teeth when he flinched at her touch before resuming his coercive stance and seizing her hand.

"Something happened to you," she murmured, more to herself than to him, her mind reeling. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened. _This_ is who I am," Damon said through his teeth, lowering his mouth to hers.

"I wish this could help," Elena whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks and Damon looked momentarily half-mesmerized, half-perplexed by her tears that apparently prevented him from kissing her.

"This is not a fairy tale, Elena," Damon said in a grim voice, his gaze curiously drawn to her tears as if he was trying to decipher some mystery confined inside them.

Elena shook her head. "No," she agreed and then tipped her head forward, her forehead almost hitting his. "What we have is better," she said, holding his gaze. "It's _real_."

She pressed her lips to his and started kissing him. Damon seemed stunned, the grip he had on her hand loosening and Elena used her newly regained freedom of movements to cup his face in her palms.

There was suddenly a deafening noise in Damon's mind, growing more unbearable with every second, as if millions of tiny wheels in his head were grating against each other with increasing speed.

"Stop!" He growled, pushing Elena away.

Her head hit the wall right behind her and she grimaced at the dull pain that for a few moments made her feel unpleasantly dizzy.

"Elena!"

She wasn't sure if it was because of the pain, but for a second she thought that Damon's voice sounded like his real voice again. She blinked a few times, feeling his hand on her cheek, but then the look of concern on his face was replaced by a scowl and after abruptly turning away from her, he covered his face with his hands.

"Damon?"

Damon murmured something in response, but Elena couldn't make out the words.

She took a few unsteady steps toward him and tentatively touched his shoulder.

He didn't react to her touch which was still better than flinching, so Elena slowly walked around him, keeping her hand on his arm.

"Damon-"

"That voice... my voice... no, no..." he muttered without looking at her. "There is a voice in my head," he repeated, uncovering his face and Elena's eyes widened at the sight.

His face looked as if he was fighting a high fever. The shade of his eyes was lighter, but they were blood-shot and there were drops of sweat on his forehead.

"What voice?" Elena asked, trying to hold his gaze, but with a grimace Damon shoved her to the side.

He dashed outside, but then came back and ran into an adjacent room. Elena rushed after him, but Damon slammed the door shut in her face before she managed to step inside. A moment later, she heard a quick, quiet, grinding noise and when she looked down she saw a key being slid under the door.

"Hide it somewhere," Damon rasped out to her through the door.

Elena placed her outstretched palms on the wooden surface, sliding them down in sync with what sounded like Damon sliding to the floor, his back against the locked door.

"Elena, take the key. Don't give it back to me. Don't open the door."

"Why? What's happening?" Elena asked, looking at the key, then back at the door.

After a moment of hesitation she picked up the key and closed it in her hand. For a few moments all she could hear was Damon's labored breathing on the other side.

Kneeling down, Elena sat on the floor as close to the door as possible. "Damon?"

"You need to get away from here, Elena." Damon's voice was steady, too steady, as if he was desperately trying to keep it that way, as if something terrible was going to happen if he didn't. "You need to get away... from me," he added after a pause with a trace of grim disbelief in his voice. "Elena."

Elena's head snapped toward the door. "No," she replied immediately, thinking that the way in which he was saying her name now was enough to make her stay, because there was truth in that and only in that and everything that sounded differently was fake and false.

"Yes," Damon insisted firmly. "It's not safe for you here, Elena. I don't know what's happening, but it's not safe."

Elena opened her mouth to speak, but before she managed to say anything, she heard Damon slam his hand against the door, causing it to rattle.

"Give me the key!" He shouted and Elena bit her lip with a grimace, her jaw clenching.

She suddenly remembered what Hazel had said after she'd burned her hands. That she'd heard a voice in her head. And now it seemed that something like that was happening to Damon. The realization was far from reassuring, but at least it provided Elena with some kind of an explanation that gave her hope that she was right not believing Damon's behavior to be of his own accord.

"Elena, _run_." Damon's voice shook her out of her brief reverie and she felt a pang of pain at the difference in his tone that made it clear that his harsh words hurt him as much as they hurt her. "Please. I _will_ hurt you," he added with ominous certainty and the door rattled again.

Elena held her breath, looking sadly at the door. But then she rested her forehead against it with a sigh and closed her eyes to keep tears at bay. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm not leaving you."

Damon's forehead fell against the door on the other side, Elena's words echoing through his head, making the pain in his chest even more acute. He felt completely unable to control what was happening and yet there was light in her words that felt almost tangible and he wanted, with all his might, to cling to her words, to hear them instead of that nagging voice in his head.

Elena started trying to explain to him that she knew it wasn't his fault, trying to remind him what had happened with Hazel, but at some point she realized Damon wasn't listening to her. He resumed pounding on the door, attempting to threaten her to give him the key. But the more she listened to him, the more rehearsed his words sounded. Some of the lines she was sure he was repeating exactly the same way he'd said them before and she tried to hold on to the thought that this madness that made people do and say things they didn't mean was only temporary.

It was difficult to imagine how this was possible at all, but if in case of Hazel it lasted only for a very short amount of time, perhaps in case of Damon it also wouldn't last for too long.

Despite Damon's recurring fits of anger, Elena didn't move away from the door and kept leaning against it, comforting herself with the thought that during the moments when he was quiet, he was touching the door in the same spot, in the same way that she was touching it.

Damon's breathing on the other side was often the only sound in the cottage, but it never was the only sound for long. Most of the time, he'd continue trying to convince her that he was merely toying with her, that everything he'd said to her earlier in the forest was true and that it was his moments of clarity now that weren't real.

However, Elena remained sure that she had a palpable proof of the truth in her hand. And even without it, she knew what to believe. Clutching the key to her, she soon ceased trying to reason with Damon and settled for just keeping her odd watch by the door instead. She knew he could feel her presence just as she could feel his. And it was enough to survive, for now.

There were so many mysteries to be solved. Lost memories, the baby and now this mystifying condition that seemed to be affecting people in town. Was there any connection between any of these elements? If she and Damon could regain their memories, perhaps then everything else would be easier to figure out. Elena frowned. If Emily knew about the baby, if she could heal Hazel's hands, maybe her gift could also help to retrieve forgotten memories?

But then Elena's frown deepened when a thought sprung to her mind, something that she only realized just now. Why would Emily say that Elena and her baby weren't from here, weren't from... _now_ , whatever that meant, but that's what she'd said, why would she say it as if it was a surprise to her as well? As her sister's handmaiden Emily should obviously know where Katherine's sister was from.

"Why are you still here? Elena." Damon's voice sounded simultaneously upset, resigned and amazed and Elena smiled brokenly, flatting her hand against the door.

"I'm practicing the vows we're going to make," she said quietly, marveling inwardly at how quickly she seemed to adjust to this bizarre situation, almost as if she was used to such extraordinary calamities coming her way. "Till death do us part." Elena kept her hand in place imagining Damon's hand on the other side, a quiet, scraping noise indicating the slightest movement. "And it seems to me both of us are still very much alive."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Are there any wild animals around here?" Jenna asked, glancing over her shoulder as she was helping Stefan arrange all the branches they'd collected in order to start a fire.

"Not any that would up the ante for Silas or Katherine," Stefan replied somberly.

Jenna snorted. "Right." She walked a few steps backwards to sit on a wood log nearby. "Why did Jeremy want to come here again?"

"I have no idea," Stefan replied sincerely in an utterly serious voice, eliciting another smile from Jenna that turned into a bored grimace when John walked up to them.

"It's getting dark," John observed, glancing at the sky and taking a seat next to Desmond and Lily.

"Are we waiting for Bonnie or are we going to do it the old-fashioned way?" Jenna asked, pointing to the bonfire.

Stefan smiled.

"We can try the old-fashioned way," Desmond offered, but the conversation came to a halt when Lily suddenly cut in.

"Do you remember when once in the summer we wanted to make a bonfire? But it was raining all week and then..." Lily trailed off, her expression momentarily falling, whether at the rest of the memory or the guarded expression on Stefan's face, it was difficult to tell.

"Weather can be tricky," John said conversationally, poking the already arranged branches with a stick.

"Yes, let's talk about the weather," Jenna scoffed.

John gave her a questioning look.

Stefan watched Lily avert her gaze, Desmond instinctively reaching out for her hand as if he was afraid she might storm to her feet and take flight.

"I remember," Stefan said under his breath without any specific color to his tone, but the words were enough to make Lily's eyes dart back to him.

After holding his mother's gaze for a few moments Stefan looked down at the bonfire, not sure if he was ready or even wanted to believe the sincerity of the tears that he noticed welling up in her eyes.

"I just wanted you to know that... that it's all coming back to me, I don't know why and... and I want you to know that I'm... I'm very proud of you," Lily said in a low, faltering voice, looking at Stefan who stilled his movements. "You stood by each other. Even when I wasn't there for you, you were there for each other. You had each other through all these years. And I'm very grateful to have such..." She drew a shallow breath. "Such wonderful sons."

Stefan's eyes remained fixed on the ground for a longer while before he finally looked up. There was a certain amount of exaltation to Lily's voice that felt familiar yet now that he didn't trust it, there was also something off-putting about it and he wasn't sure whether he felt anything at all at the thought that her words might be genuine.

Either way, she probably deserved the truth.

"Is that what you think?" Stefan asked, ignoring the way in which Desmond's eyes flickered to him, wordlessly asking him not to say anything hurtful, because a trace of sharp detachment in Stefan's tone seemed to signal the possibility.

Lily looked at Stefan in silence.

"Because the truth is that we weren't there for each other. Not always, at least," Stefan murmured with a pensive frown. "Not when it mattered. Not when we should have most. There were no miracles, no rescues, no celebrating every passing year of immortality. If that's the story you're trying to believe then I'm sorry, but it wasn't the case. There was grief, solitude, anguish, guilt, anger and bitterness." Stefan stood up. "But it has changed," he said, holding Lily's gaze. She looked at him without blinking. "What you said is true now and if you're grateful for that, then you should thank someone who made it happen. Unfortunately, it's probably a little late for that." Lily's mouth twitched when Stefan added. "Because you'd have to thank Elena."

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Elena soon lost the track of time, each hour dragging mercilessly, measured by cruel words she didn't believe, interlaced with brief moments where Damon continued imploring her to leave.

She was enduring both, not moving from her spot by the door, watching shadows grow larger as the daylight was paling and the night was flooding the house through the windows.

A clock she didn't even notice until now struck midnight and in the eerie silence of the cottage the sound sent a tremor through Elena. She instinctively sat up hearing Damon apparently do the same on the other side.

For a few minutes they were both quiet.

"It stopped."

Damon's words were hushed and Elena pressed her ear closer to the door to make sure she'd heard him right.

"Damon?"

"That voice. It stopped."

Elena jumped to her feet, her hands shaking, causing her to drop the key a few times before she succeeded in inserting it into the lock.

She was acting with haste and on an impulse of hope and only after she opened the door it crossed her mind that it might've been a trick meant to make her open the door.

But Damon's reaction to her appearing in the doorway quickly dispersed any traces of uncertainty.

"No, no, Elena, don't do that! It may come back-"

Damon tried to stand up, tried to move away from her, but Elena's arms were already around him, locking him in a firm embrace.

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"Did you bring anything else?" Bonnie asked, arching an eyebrow and biting back a smile as she was watching Jeremy taking out of his backpack countless packages of graham crackers, bags of marshmallows and chocolate bars.

"I have a special ingredient that Sarah came up with-" Jeremy replied, stopping himself in mid-sentence, feeling everyone's eyes on him.

If he didn't know any better he himself would think that he was doing it on purpose, but he really wasn't. It wasn't his fault that for some strange reason he was thinking about Sarah more and more ever since she'd left with her parents. It was some kind of a perplexing paradox he couldn't make sense of. And the fact that she hadn't texted him even once since she'd left wasn't helping either.

"And that'd be the fifth time he mentions Sarah while we're here," Bonnie said flippantly, taking a look around as if she was making a general announcement.

"Hey, want to hear something more awkward?" Jenna asked, propping her elbows on her knees.

Jeremy gave her a weak smile.

"Do you know what is the one common trait all of my ex-boyfriends have in common?"

Jenna looked between Jeremy, Bonnie, Stefan, Desmond and Lily, making sure not to spare John a glance.

"If it's the fact they were or are all dead, everyone's exes around here have that in common, sorry," Bonnie said with a shrug.

"Way to ruin a joke, thanks," Jenna said with a sigh, returning Bonnie's smile.

"If you want to be original, go back to grad school," Jeremy offered.

Jenna was about to reply, but then everyone looked at Bonnie who jumped to her feet.

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Jeremy asked, wrinkling his forehead. "Hey!" He exclaimed with a hint of disappointment in his voice when Bonnie started the bonfire with a single flick of her hand, orange flames bursting high into the air. "I was going to do it a regular way."

"Before or after that bear eats us?" Jenna asked in a whisper that Jeremy would make fun of if it didn't sound sincerely horrified.

"What bear?"

"It's not a bear," Desmond said, stepping in front of the group, squinting into the distance and trying to make out the shape looming near the forest edge.

John started looking around in search of a weapon, but it seemed that apart from sticks and branches they didn't have anything they could use to defend themselves. Well, except-

"Can't you just... poof whatever animal that is, away?" Jenna asked hopefully, stepping closer to Bonnie who slowly shifted her eyes to her, but didn't get a chance to lament her magic deficiencies, because the sound of a familiar voice rendered her speechless instead.

"How is that possible?" Jeremy whispered in bewilderment, staring at the limping man who slowly approached them.

"If this makes you feel any better I'm just as surprised," the man replied, a signature hint of cool cheerfulness in his voice now balanced with grim austerity.

Holding her breath, Bonnie turned around.

Long dark hair and long beard made the man look almost unrecognizable, but his eyes and the contagious intensity of his gaze left no room for doubt.

"Do you know who that is?" Lily asked, shooting Stefan a questioning look and glancing at Desmond, Jenna and John who seemed just as clueless as her.

"That'd be... Professor Atticus Shane," Bonnie introduced him in a low, puzzled voice, completely stumped by the encounter.

The darkness and the beard obscuring the sight, Bonnie wasn't sure but she thought that Shane smiled.

"I always knew you'd come back for me," he said with sincerity that warranted a dead silence to follow.

But then he chuckled wryly and Jeremy blinked when Shane tapped him lightly on the shoulder while passing him on his way toward the bonfire.

"Kidding," Shane said with a wink, glancing between Jeremy and Bonnie before helping himself to a chocolate bar.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Elena, I'm so sorry," Damon whispered vehemently, cradling her face in his hands, his eyes shimmering with dismay. "I'm so sorry I hurt you."

He didn't even remember too clearly what had happened, his own words a nagging, meaningless noise. But he _felt_ he had done, had said some repulsive things, Elena's tear-stained cheeks and her disheveled appearance the best indication of that.

Without thinking, Damon automatically tried to pull a torn sleeve of Elena's dress back onto her shoulder.

"You didn't," Elena said reassuringly, placing her hand on Damon's cheek, her other hand clasped around his neck. "It wasn't your fault. It was... it was just some kind of a malady."

She reminded him of what had happened to Hazel, hoping that it was enough to convince him not to blame himself. But a broken, guilty look didn't seem to be disappearing off his face.

"What if it will happen again?" Damon inched his hands away from Elena's face as if he was suddenly afraid to touch her, his forehead wrinkling in a horrified scowl. "What if this time now wasn't the only time when something like that happened? What if this... this malady took over me before? Will take over me again?"

He gritted his teeth as the revolting words he'd said earlier started coming back to him. How could he possibly say things like that? Why? They weren't true. They couldn't-

Damon blinked rapidly, suddenly finding it difficult to find a rational explanation for saying such appalling things if they weren't true. Ice-cold shivers ran up his spine at the unimaginable thought, but then his eyes darted to Elena when she hastily made him look at her, her hands on his face.

"You _can't_ think that, Damon. You know this is not true. You _know_ you couldn't do something like that. You can't start thinking otherwise. That's what this malady seems to be about. It made Hazel hurt herself and now you. It's trying to break you by making you believe the things about yourself that aren't true! You have to stand by what you feel, what you know it's true."

Damon stared at her in wonder, Elena's words managing to get to him in a way he didn't think possible. The words themselves wouldn't have convinced him, but the way in which she was saying them, with so much faith, so much _love_. He believed every word. He would always believe her every word, he thought with calming relief.

He felt that what she was saying was true, her every word erasing doubt from his mind, straightening out the distorted image, making him feel that he knew who he was again.

"I trust you. No sickness is going to change that."

Elena trailed off when Damon's lips fell onto hers and he kissed her tenderly before whispering against her lips.

"Thank you, Elena."

She opened her eyes prepared to smile and offer him a warm-hearted, mildly amused 'you're welcome', but when their eyes met she forgot what she wanted to say.

Damon's hand was weighing heavily on her shoulder in a protective, comforting gesture and it felt so endlessly soothing to be feeling his palm against her bare skin.

They survived this awful day and only now she felt how exhausting this day had been. But now they were looking into each other's eyes again. Just like she'd wished for before, all the bad things were just a bad dream or at least worth as much as a bad dream. There was nothing that could truly come between them. There was nothing that could wipe out this sublime, shared feeling burning within them.

"Elena..." Damon whispered huskily, petrified in the strangest, most unexpectedly sensuous way by the focused expression on Elena's face, her eyes boring into his with intensity that made his heart hammer in his chest, his blood rushing through his veins like scalding wine.

He wanted to repeat that this wasn't safe, that she should get away from him... But they were stranded in a remote house in the middle of the wild forest, in the middle of the night. There was no light except for the stars outside and it felt so utterly impossible to spend all these hours until dawn on two sides of a locked door.

His eyes already closed, he felt Elena's mouth against his, the kiss sharpening all of his senses. He could hear her lips moving against his, Elena's quietest, stifled moans reverberating in his head with the loudness of church bells.

Nestled tightly in Damon's arms while they continue kissing, Elena's hands slid under Damon's shirt and she smiled feverishly against his lips, startled by how intoxicating it felt to toss his shirt to the side of the room and press her lips to his chest.

Damon's fingers weaved their way into Elena's hair and he gingerly brought her lips back to his, kissing her relentlessly on the mouth while cradling her to him.

Everything seemed to be happening in a haze of frenzy, their touch delirious, inexplicably impatient, yet it was filled with such pristine clarity, every moment of it, that when they looked into each other's eyes in between ardent kisses, there was no mist, no fog, just the purest color of their eyes shining with the need to be as close as possible, not even a tinge of air separating his skin from hers.

Damon's hands glided along Elena's body back and forth as if he didn't want to leave any part of her skin untouched. There was no shred of fabric left between them when they crashed onto the bed in an embrace, his hands roaming over her skin with breathtaking confidence, as if it was a map he somehow already knew by heart, Elena's arms wrapped around him, her nails digging into his back, tentatively and then hard enough to draw blood.

It wasn't pleasure or pain, it was both, more than both, more than everything, these moments of them moving together in the humming quietness of open-mouthed kisses.

"Elena... I love you," Damon whispered into Elena's ear, burying his face in her tangled hair.

She panted the words back to him before crying out, breaking through the dark, through the night, crashing into a blinding dome of light and floating back into Damon's arms, drifting to sleep with his lips on her cheek and her hand on his heart.

xxxdelenaxxx

Thanks to a terse text from Enzo, Caroline already knew Enzo, Isobel, Miranda and Grayson were on their way back to Mystic Falls, so when she parked her car in front of the boarding house she wasn't surprised by seeing one of the cars in the driveway. The second one, however, made her pause.

When she walked inside, she noticed a bag left in the hallway and after taking a closer look at the airport straps she thought she knew exactly who had arrived.

"Is Alaric here?" Caroline asked, marching into the dimly lit parlor where Enzo was sitting on the couch near the fireplace, his legs outstretched, a drink in his hand.

"Upstairs," Enzo grunted, his eyes fixed on the ebbing fire. "With Isobel."

"Is that why you look depressed? Don't worry. One day you're going to meet someone who will want to go on a second date with you," Caroline said with a thin smile.

But then she grimaced, perplexed by Enzo's unresponsiveness. She watched him for a few moments trying to figure out the reason for his mood.

"Do you know what Damon and Elena wrote in their letter to me?" Enzo asked, making slow, round motions with his hand that made the remaining few drops of bourbon in the glass swim from one side to the other.

Caroline slumped onto a couch across from Enzo."That you have 48 hours to move out?" She offered after a moment of mock-consideration and frowned when Enzo tossed a folded piece of paper at her.

She was about to scold him, but there was something so disquieting about his demeanor that she just unfolded the letter instead.

But before she started reading it, Enzo quoted out loud, his voice uneven and wry.

"" _There's a scrapbook that will never be, in which you are that crazy uncle who comes to a Thanksgiving dinner dressed up as Santa Claus-"_ "

"Listen, I had a really long day and apparently, it's not even over yet, so-" Caroline tried to interrupt him, but Enzo continued, ignoring her.

"" _Who brings age-inappropriate presents and makes everyone laugh."_ "

"Right," Caroline muttered, glancing at the letter and putting it away on a small table nearby. If he was going to recite the whole thing anyway, there was no need for her to read it. "Are you going somewhere with this? Or is this just a side-effect of drinking alone?"

Enzo tore his gaze away from the fire and looked at Caroline so acutely that she felt a twinge of cold at the foreboding feeling she got. She'd never seen such a gloomy, resigned look on his face before.

"OK, if you're trying to freak me out you're succeeding," Caroline frowned, still hoping that he was going to say something inconsequential that would allow her to just roll her eyes and go home.

"Stamina vitae," Enzo spoke after a longer moment of silence, bringing the glass to his lips but not drinking from it. He raised his hand and sloppily pointed in the general direction of the back of the house. "Thread of life. You've got to appreciate the irony." A vacant expression flickered across his face. "And the irony of the letter. Irony everywhere," he whispered through his teeth with a darkly derisive grimace.

Caroline widened her eyes at him. "The weird magical thread in the garden? Isobel and you figured out what it is? Tell me!" She exclaimed impatiently when Enzo said nothing for a longer while.

"A life created in the future can't be born in the past. That thread appears as a sign of a space-time continuum anomaly."

Caroline grimaced in confusion. "A space-time continuum? A life created in the future? Born in the past?" She shook her head. "What are you talking about?"

Enzo looked at her, his expression acquiring a layer of exasperation that made him deliver an abrupt explanation that made Caroline's head spin.

"Elena must've been pregnant when they went back in time. And if the child will be born in the past, and it will be because that was a one-way trip," he trailed off for a second before saying the final words in a despondent, gruff whisper. "The child will die. Right after being born."

The fire died down but Caroline didn't even notice the room growing completely dark. Slowly, she leaned against the back of the couch and remained completely quiet for a very long time.


	27. Chapter 27

A/N: Thank you **so much** for your terrific reviews! :):):)

My amazing friend **Willofthewisp** 's brilliant story **An Awfully Big Adventure** was nominated for The Fanatic Fanfics Multi-Fandom Awards in the **All-Time Favorite Once Upon a Time Fanfic** category! Voting starts on April 11th and is going to last for a couple of weeks, so there's plenty of time yet to check out (if somehow you haven't already ;) this beautiful story and cast your vote :)

Speaking of brilliant stories written by amazing friends, **scarlett2112** , the Queen of Damon & Elena's AUs, just started posting her new fic **Nothing Left to Fear**. You don't want to miss this one :)

As for this chapter, yes, I'm bringing back yet another character, but at least this time not from the dead ;) And I can really promise it's the last one. (Well, not counting a couple of possible guest appearances toward the end of this story ;)

 **Chapter 27**

It could be a gust of the summer wind. Or a flurry of rose petals. A breeze at sea. That soft touch on her hair. It could be anything and everything. And it was everything. Elena smiled in her sleep, slowly waking up to the light surrounding her.

"You are awake," she said quietly, opening her eyes and lifting her hand to Damon's face.

He tilted his head to the side and kissed her palm before she cupped his cheek.

"I wanted to wake you up once I'd be able to stop looking at you, but it never happened," Damon replied with a small, lop-sided smile.

Elena grinned, but then frowned noticing the shadows under his eyes.

"Have you slept at all?" She asked suspiciously, playfully narrowing her eyes at him.

She half-hoped for a different answer, but a flicker of hesitation in Damon's eyes was an obvious one.

"Why?" She asked with a worried frown, lifting her head off the the pillow and leaning forward to press a brief kiss to his lips.

It already felt so casual it made her heart beat faster. It was as if everything between them had already happened and they were simply uncovering the truth, undoing some strange invisibility spell every time they looked at each other, talked to each other. Every time they kissed.

"I didn't want to be caught off guard if... if what happened yesterday started happening again," Damon said somberly, keeping his fingers entwined in Elena's hair.

"You should've told me. I would've stayed awake with you."

Pressing her cheek back into the pillow and with her arms locked around Damon, Elena pulled him close to her and hugged him protectively, propping her chin on the top of his head.

"Now you can go to sleep. I'll keep watch over you," she said in a mockingly commanding tone, running her fingers through his hair.

There was a long moment of silence during which Elena was under the impression that Damon was holding his breath before he finally spoke, his voice muffled.

"Elena... do you really think this is a good way of lulling me to sleep?"

Elena considered this for a second and then laughed realizing that she'd unwittingly nestled his face right into her chest.

"Let me come up with a better sleeping position, then," she offered and then laughed again when she found herself flipped onto her back, Damon's face hovering over hers.

"That won't be necessary," he said with a smirk, lowering his mouth to nuzzle her neck.

xxxdelenaxxx

"What _can_ you talk about all night? That's ridiculous," Jeremy repeated under his breath, because no one had answered him the first time he'd said it.

"Didn't you say he was, well, an expert on magic?" Jenna said, finishing the last of her smores.

Jeremy hid his face in his hands with a groan.

Jenna smiled and patted him on the back. "Don't worry. We won't sue you for not keeping this trip as magic-free as you promised."

Jeremy shook his head with a weak smile. "Didn't Rebekah say she saw him die or saw him dead or something?" He asked after a pause, giving Stefan a questioning look.

Stefan shrugged, brushing the grains of dirt off his shoulders after sitting up. "Knowing Rebekah, she might've just kicked him a few times and after five seconds assume he was dead."

Jenna sighed. "Lovely."

"Is it morning already?" John asked, pushing himself off the ground and rubbing his eyes.

"What does it look like?" Jenna snapped, looking up at the bright blue sky. "Like the middle of the night to you?"

John glanced at Jenna and then looked at Lily and Desmond who were still asleep near the extinguished bonfire.

"At least someone is able to sleep."

Jenna snorted. "You slept like a stone yourself. Too bad no wild animals took advantage of that," she muttered, annoyed that John seemed to find her remark amusing.

"Where is Bonnie?" He asked, shifting his attention to Jeremy.

"Having a neverending conversation with Shane," Jeremy replied acidly. "Whatever made me drag everyone back here?" He shook his head with a derisive grimace.

"My sentiments exactly," Jenna said, jumping to her feet and starting a morning exercising routine.

Jeremy shot her a look. "Believe it or not, I really just wanted for us to go on a trip somewhere far and interesting and all the dying business aside, I remembered this island as a pretty cool place. The wilderness and all."

"Well, in that case, since your intentions were so pure, nothing bad can come out of this," Jenna said with a wink. "Is anyone up for a morning run through the wild forest, then?"

Jeremy pointed to Stefan who shook his head.

"Let them watch those who aren't awake yet," John cut it, standing up. "I can go for a run with you."

Jeremy raised his eyebrows while Jenna just stared at him.

"I'm serious," John reiterated. "I'm tired of this. We need to clear up the atmosphere."

"And running around together is going to achieve that?" Jenna asked flatly.

"Well, maybe we'll run into a bear, I'll save your life and then you'll have to forgive me," John offered in a mockingly speculative tone before breaking into an unhurried run.

Jenna glanced at Jeremy and Stefan who both looked like they weren't going to offer her any constructive advice.

"Things I do in afterlife. Or in afterdeath, for that matter." she muttered before she turned around to follow John.

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena found it rather amusing, the way everyone was staring at Damon and her walking toward the house in their disheveled clothes and with tousled hair.

Although of course the situation became a little less amusing when after entering the house, it became clear that a search party had been sent after them.

In the library they found Stefan and Katherine who both looked very worried and Giuseppe who looked a bit worried and very angry, a hint of worry disappearing the moment they walked, hand in hand, through the door.

"Do you have any idea-" He started shouting, but Stefan cut him off.

"Are you alright?" He exclaimed, rushing to Damon and Elena to hug them. "Where have you been? What happened?"

Katherine rose to her feet with the most relieved smile she could muster, her eyes scrutinizing Damon and Elena's faces in search of something that for some inexplicable reason just seemed not to be there.

"We... got lost in the forest," Damon delivered the only explanation that was probably as close to the truth as they could get.

"That is unacceptably irresponsible! Everyone's been searching for you!"

Giuseppe glared at both of them and Elena wasn't sure he even believed them at all, but at least it seemed that he made a point of going along with their feeble explanation.

"We've been so worried!" Katherine joined in, walking up to them."And just h _ow_ did you get lost?"

The question had both Damon and Elena stumped, because they didn't think their explanation through well enough to offer a very detailed version of it. In fact, they only remembered that they needed an explanation at all a few minutes before reaching the house. The way back had just been too... preoccupying to allow them much time to talk about that. They had _danced_ rather than walked back, laughing and kissing on the way.

"We just went for a walk and at some point realized we didn't know where we were," Elena said in one breath, a little nervous about not telling the exact truth, but then again they didn't have much of a choice.

Giuseppe snarled. "You will be explaining that to everyone yourself," he said, pointing his finger at Damon who, to Stefan's surprise didn't seem shaken by their father's tone at all.

"Of course."

"We're sorry," Elena said quietly, glancing at Damon and squeezing his hand in a reassuring gesture.

"Everyone's always sorry!" Giuseppe exclaimed in aggravation. "Wouldn't it be easier to think beforehand instead of being sorry afterwards?"

He muttered the question under his breath and then stormed out of the room.

"What matters, is that you're safely back," Stefan said cheerfully in a conspiratorial whisper, just in case Giuseppe could still hear them.

"Yes," Katherine agreed with a smile that didn't reach her eyes and then grasped Elena's hand so deftly she didn't have time to protest. "You must've had a very trying day. And night," she said, inspecting Elena's fingers and Elena followed her gaze, confused, but then held her breath noticing blood behind her fingernails. "Obviously, I underestimated how ingenious and adaptable you are."

She let go of Elena's hand, but kept watching her very intently.

There was something disdainful in Katherine's voice that made Elena feel uncomfortable enough to remain quiet, but at the same time she suddenly felt an unexpected rush of fearlessness that other than her love for Damon was the first emotion she could recognize as something thoroughly familiar, a core feeling impossible to break.

Drawing back her hand she thrust up her chin. "Obviously," she confirmed, gratified by the faintest glimpse of irritation in Katherine's gaze.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Are you serious, Bonnie? He isn't coming back with us!" Jeremy lowered his voice to an angry whisper glancing over at Shane who sitting not very far away from them and from the looks of it was enjoying a chat with Desmond, Lily and Jenna while Stefan was watching him with wariness Jeremy could definitely relate to.

"We can't leave him here again!" Bonnie argued. "And if that makes you feel less suspicious, it's actually my idea. He said he wanted to stay here. He said that when he woke up after we were all gone and realized he wasn't dead he decided not to even try getting off this island. Don't you think he could've done it already if he really wanted to? He's resourceful enough. And he's been here for eight years instead!"

"Exactly! Don't you think this doesn't make sense?" Jeremy gave Bonnie an incredulous frown.

"What doesn't make sense? He got involved in all this because he believed Silas could bring back his wife and his son. Once this turned out to be a ruse he didn't see a reason to live. He didn't care that he survived, so he just stayed here to wither away."

"Wither away? Really? Is that a direct quote?"

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at him. "What's your problem anyway, Jeremy? Yes, he was a little psyched out and he didn't tell us his whole story right away, but other than that..." Bonnie trailed off.

"What?" Jeremy prompted, annoyed.

Bonnie shrugged. "Other than that he was... OK... ish. He helped you with your anti-vampire mania, remember?"

Jeremy was about to retort, but then his expression grew pensive and he looked away.

Bonnie took a step toward him. "What is it?"

Jeremy shook his head as if he wanted to shrug off the question but then looked back at Bonnie with a soft smile. "Nothing. It's just that... It was a pretty good day. That day at the lake house. I can't remember too many days when there would be time for just sitting on the floor, rummaging through old Christmas decorations."

He averted his eyes again and Bonnie watched him for a few moments smiling to herself at the odd sense of tranquility that suddenly fell over her, making everything soothingly clear at last.

"That's what you miss, isn't it?" she said quietly after a pause and Jeremy's eyes darted back to her.

He knitted his eyebrows a little, perplexed.

"You miss that peace of mind that comes with being surrounded by people who can't surprise you, can't hurt you, will always love you." She reached out for Jeremy's hand and squeezed it tight while holding his gaze. "You know I'll always love you, right?" She asked and despite managing to keep her voice steady she couldn't stop the tears from welling up in her eyes and she laughed at herself briefly because of it.

"Bonnie-"

"And I know that you love me. But I think we both know it isn't the kind of love that keeps you awake at night, because if it was, we wouldn't have spent the last five years away from each other."

Jeremy listened to her in silence, his frown deepening. He didn't like what Bonnie was saying at all and yet a part of him was so relieved to hear it.

"Did the creepy professor make you realize that?" He asked at last, arching an eyebrow.

Bonnie snorted. "For your _and_ everyone else's information. I don't have a thing for Shane. He helped me believe in myself when I needed it most. He's smart and I like him. And I also like his tea," she added and Jeremy smiled back despite himself. "And last night when we talked he reminded me about something that I keep forgetting. I'm not afraid of being alone. I want to see more of the world and figure out where my home is. Maybe it was in Mystic Falls all along or maybe it's somewhere far away. I'll never know as long as I'll be spending every moment hanging onto the safety net of memories. Even if they are really beautiful."

Jeremy returned her smile, caught between feeling a weight being lifted off his chest and remembering that moment from all these years ago, that first moment when he realized he didn't want to live his life without Bonnie Bennett in it.

"So... in other words... are you breaking up with me, Bonnie?"

Bonnie Bennett, the best friend he'd ever have.

Bonnie smiled. "I guess I am."

"And you're going on a trip around the world?"

"I might. As soon as I figure out this whole weird thread deal," she added, narrowing her eyes at Jeremy. "You didn't think I'd let that go, did you?"

Jeremy shook his head with a faint smile and hugged her. "No, I didn't think you would."

xxxdelenaxxx

Emily gasped when after turning away from the window she came face to face with Katherine.

"Why are you sneaking up on me?" Emily asked, regaining her composure and narrowing her eyes at Katherine.

Very slowly, Katherine raised her eyebrows and barked a laugh. "Oh, that's a delightful sample of impudence."

"I don't understand," Emily said dismissively, but Katherine stopped her in her tracks, demanding her full attention.

"I think you do. My dear sister was supposed to come back from her little excursion with a broken mind, broken heart and a broken soul. Yet she frolicked into the room like it was any other Sunday afternoon."

"It's Thursday today," Emily deadpanned, not taking a step back when Katherine advanced toward her.

"Don't play that game with me, _witch_. What made you think it'd be wise to tamper with my compulsion?"

Emily narrowed her eyes at Katherine, defiance flashing in her eyes. "It was pointlessly cruel. What has she done to anger you? I didn't think it was right to make her go through that kind of ordeal in her condition."

"My reasons are none of your concern unless you want to end up where the likes of you belong and go up in flames. Don't forget who saved you from that fate once. I may not do that again," Katherine seethed through her teeth and then made to leave the room, but before reaching the door she remembered something and turned around. "'In her condition'," she repeated, squinting. "Just what did you mean by that?"

xxxdelenaxxx

"I knew I would find you here."

Elijah smiled faintly. "It seems more appropriate a place for a walk for us than a park," he said, turning his head to look at Rebekah who returned his smile. "You came. Thank you."

"Well, I figured I shouldn't miss the momentum." Rebekah took another step to stand next to Elijah. "That and it would be nice to be human in this body," she added with a smirk, looking herself up and down. "I kind of missed it, these last few years."

She looked away with a pensive frown, but then her attention was drawn to the tombstone in front of which they were standing.

"For crying out loud. No wonder they keep getting in trouble all the time. These people. They got _her_ a headstone?"

"Judging from the inscription, yes," Elijah said slowly, following Rebekah's gaze.

 _Katherine Pierce_

 _DEAD. AT LAST._

"'Dead at last' doesn't qualify as much of an insult," Rebekah said with a mirthless snort. "What a waste of faux marble." She sighed. "And you, Elijah, why are you standing here anyway? Shouldn't you be lecturing Nik instead?"

Elijah's mouth twitched into a brief smile. "I'm giving our brother..." he made a quick, elaborate gesture with his hand as if he was searching for the best word, "space. As for me being here, like I said, I went for a walk. And accidentally noticed this."

"And decided to spend a few hours staring at a harlot's empty grave?" Rebekah asked wryly, raising her eyebrows.

"Contemplate," Elijah corrected her flatly, adjusting his cuffs."For a few minutes."

Rebekah grimaced. "Contemplate what?"

"The fine line between pain and doom," Elijah said in a quiet, thoughtful voice, fluidly turning to Rebekah and continuing before she had a chance to interrupt him. "You are all forgetting that the person I see when I think of her is not a malicious enchantress you all see," he squinted, his voice melodic and uneven, a wistful smile flickering across his face, "but a girl who once told me that if we ceased to believe in love, we wouldn't want to live."

Rebekah looked at Elijah in silence for another moment before she spoke. "I know you blamed yourself for not saving her, but the truth is, you tried to save her," she said in a firm, decisive voice. "She just didn't believe that you would and decided to hang herself instead. She chose to trust herself over you! It's a sad enough story, but a cautionary one too. Love is a risk. And if you're not willing to take any, you're not capable of love."

Elijah's eyes remained fixed on an unidentifiable point in space for a few more moments before he seemed to regain his composure and look at Rebekah again, a hint of humor in his tone.

"Rebekah, is being human what inspires such insightful reflections? Perhaps you should share your thoughts with Niklaus. He may just change his mind if you assure him he may expect a fair trade of power for wisdom."

"Please, Elijah, give me a day off," Rebekah said in a mockingly miserable tone. "I just arrived. Can we reschedule the family onslaught for tomorrow? Today I was going to find a nice place to stay, unpack, paint my nails and maybe pay Stefan a visit," she added with a smirk, already walking backwards and waving Elijah a good-bye.

"I believe he's out of town."

Rebekah smiled. "Good. Then I'm going to crash in his room for the night."

xxxdelenaxxx

Damon's hair was still wet from the bath and he didn't even have a chance to peek into Elena's room before Stefan came running to tell him that their father wanted to see him in his office. Urgently.

Damon didn't think anything new could really happen within mere two hours that had passed since their return, but the rush made him think that perhaps Giuseppe came up with a punishment for their temporary disappearance and was in a hurry to announce it.

"Come in."

Giuseppe's voice sounded harsh, but not harsher than usual, so Damon hoped that the conversation would at least be brief.

He walked into the room and closed the door behind him, only then noticing that Giuseppe was not the only person waiting for him.

Elena's sister was sitting across from Giuseppe, her position a little rigid, an immaculately white handkerchief in her hand.

"Stefan said you wanted to see me," Damon said, not having any clear idea what it was all about, but finding Katherine's facial expression ill-boding.

It looked as if she could hardly keep herself from crying.

"Yes," Giuseppe confirmed and cleared his throat. "I was made aware of certain circumstances that I believe should also be of vital interest of you. Miss Pierce allowed me to disclose a very private matter in order to protect our family from disgrace, which I appreciate," he said, glancing at Katherine who nodded slowly in acknowledgment.

"I hoped it would not come to this and I wish I did not have to reveal such, such painful-" She trailed off as if she couldn't even speak without risking bursting into tears. "It pains me greatly to speak ill of my own sister, but having witnessed such kindness of your entire family, I came to the only honorable conclusion that I must tell you all the truth."

Damon looked between Giuseppe and Katherine in confusion, understanding less and less of what was being said. "What is this all about?" He asked, beginning to suspect that perhaps his father and Elena's sister had come to some kind of ridiculous agreement on a scheme to prevent or postpone his and Elena's wedding.

"I never tell her that, but I'm afraid my sister's behavior is what sent our parents to their early graves," Katherine admitted tearfully. "All the sorrow and suffering that Elena's behavior caused them!" She shook her head, lightly tapping the corners of her eyes with her handkerchief. "Their hearts could not bear such a burden."

"What kind of nonsense is this?" Damon managed to interrupt Katherine at last, all the while shaking his head in complete bewilderment, repulsed by Katherine's words.

"Be quiet and listen," Giuseppe snapped, rising to his feet.

"She always liked company, but we never thought much of it until we discovered that it wasn't just conversation that she was seeking. One day our parents caught her and a coachman's son-"

"I won't be listening to that!" Damon shouted, even if he couldn't yet make any sense of what Katherine was saying.

But what was blatantly clear to him already, it was that Katherine was defaming her sister in the most abominable way, her disparaging opinions making Damon's heart clench painfully at the thought that Elena might overhear such words being spoken in regard to her.

"Yes, you will!" Giuseppe cried out. "My entire life I strived for respect and I will not allow for anyone to bring shame upon this family!"

"And I won't hear another lie!" Damon retorted, glaring at both Giuseppe and Katherine.

"How dare you-"

"No, how dare _you_ speak that way about my future wife?" Damon cut in, vehemence pouring from his every word. Giuseppe squinted and straightened up, unprepared for Damon to argue in such an impenitent way. "I forbid you! Do you hear me? I forbid you to speak of her unless you do so with respect!"

"What is going on here? Why is everyone screaming?" Stefan demanded with a worried frown, entering the room without knocking, since he was sure no one would've heard it anyway. "The windows are rattling in their frames!"

"Please, son, leave us alone," Giuseppe said in a strained voice, giving Stefan a warning look.

Stefan shifted his eyes to Damon who was fuming, his breathing ragged from rage.

"I'm sure you must have noticed yourself that my sister's behavior was often far from appropriate," Katherine carried on despite Stefan's interruption and the now open door. "Such a swift engagement! Was there anything in particular that expedited your decision to marry her?" She asked in an overtly concerned voice, tilting her head to the side, her eyes fixed on Damon. "Hasn't she been more... affectionate than you would expect, given the duration of your acquintance?"

Stefan's eyes flew to Damon in alarm, because he himself was flabbergasted by such a question being asked and he was at a loss trying to figure out what this discussion was all about.

"I will not be answering such incongruous questions," Damon said in the steadiest voice he could muster while glaring daggers at Katherine and Giuseppe. "As far as I am concerned this conversation has come to its end."

His face aflame with indignation, Damon abruptly turned around, heading for the door so quickly that Stefan jumped out of his way to avoid Damon crashing into him.

"She is with child," Katherine called out in a perfectly crestfallen voice, bringing her handkerchief to her mouth with a dramatic sigh.

Stefan's eyes widened in consternation, his eyes darting between everyone, which only added to his confusion, because no one seemed as shocked as he.

"You knew?" Giuseppe asked in incredulous dismay.

He looked at Damon who responded to the news by merely shooting Katherine an annoyed glare over his shoulder, his hand grasping the door frame.

"Yes," Damon confirmed with an impatient huff, turning toward his father. "What difference does it make?"

For a few moments Giuseppe stared at him in silence as if he was having difficulties wrapping his mind around Damon's words.

"What difference does it make?" Giuseppe finally scoffed. "It makes all the difference!"

"It doesn't make any difference at all!"

"You only think that it doesn't!" Giuseppe bellowed, hitting his desk with his fist so hard that even Katherine recoiled in her seat, shooting Giuseppe a shrewd, curious look. "You wish it didn't! But it does!" Giuseppe continued, ignoring Stefan's attempts to interrupt him. "Because every day of your life, every moment, every minute you will be thinking about whose face she sees when she looks at her son!" He roared, his eyes blazing.

"Or daughter," Katherine said barely above a whisper, her unblinking gaze fixed on Giuseppe.

Giuseppe's eyes drifted to her and he looked so lost in his speech that it took him a moment to realize what she'd said.

"Or daughter," he mumbled absently, falling back into his armchair.

Stefan was looking at him with a pensive frown.

"Elena doesn't remember anything or anyone from her past," Damon said sternly. "And even if she did..." His eyebrows knitted and he drew a breath. "I love her and she loves me and this child is going to be ours, because we will both love him or her. If I wouldn't be capable of loving her child, I wouldn't be worthy of her love," Damon concluded ardently and after a moment of silence that fell in the room he turned around and left, slamming the door shut behind him.

Stefan stood motionlessly, frozen to the spot by what he'd witnessed. The last few days had given him hope that they could all become a family, a happy, warm family they never were, but now it seemed that everything went from bad to worse and now Damon and Elena would surely leave, Katherine would leave too and he would stay in this house alone with his father. Or he could leave as well and then Giuseppe would be left here alone, which seemed like a cruel fate, even for someone as misanthropic as him.

Looking at Giuseppe who continued staring at the door as if Damon's words were still ringing in his ears, Stefan thought that there was no worse fate than solitude. He didn't think he could ever live being all alone in the world.

xxxdelenaxxx

"You didn't fasten your seatbelt," John pointed out, interrupting Jenna's hushed, humorous exchange with Bonnie concerning Shane looking rather hot after he'd cut his hair and shaved and put on some civilized clothes.

"Just because I let you sit next me because I don't want to be the one responsible for the exit door doesn't mean that you get to bother me during the flight," Jenna snapped, turning to John with an annoyed glare.

"Miss, could you faster your seatbelt?" A flight attendant asked, passing Jenna and John's row.

Jenna stiffened while John raised his eyebrows, trying not to smile while looking at her.

"Of course," Jenna replied, giving the flight attendant a smile and then fastening her seatbelt with a stifled groan.

"I thought we made truce?" John asked speculatively.

"Maybe thinking is just not your thing," Jenna offered, opening her purse and searching for something in it.

"I told you I was sorry. That's more than your boyfriend apparently did after damaging Elena's memories."

"Oh, come on." Jenna grimaced. "Now you're going to play a concerned dad? Both the role and your accusations are out of date. And I'm not going to talk with you about Ric. That's none of your business." She pulled an envelope out of her purse and then tossed the purse under the seat in front of her.

"You haven't read your letter yet?" John asked and Jenna automatically wanted to continue snapping at him, but then his actual question registered with her.

"What?"

"Is that the letter you got?"

There was something in John's voice that stopped Jenna from lashing out on him. "Yes. Why? You didn't get one?" She asked with a wry snort.

John averted his eyes from her. "I haven't read mine yet," he admitted under his breath.

"Why don't you read it now, then?" Jenna suggested, leaning her head against the head rest. "Maybe then you'll be quiet for some time and let me read in peace," she murmured, opening her envelope.

After a moment of hesitation John reached for his letter tucked in an inside pocket of his jacket.

He looked at the envelope for a longer while and then quickly opened it and unfolded a single sheet of paper.

" _Remember when I said that "you can be my father but I will never be your daughter"? I was thinking about taking that back, but Damon says it's a really cool line (I did a quick reenactment and he especially liked the "got it?" at the end), so now I'm hesitant to revoke it. However, what I can tell you for sure is that your letter to me was the inspiration for all of these good-bye letters we wrote to everyone. Every word in that letter you wrote stayed with me and meant more than I wanted and perhaps will ever want to admit. I think the fact that you wrote all that, that you were thinking all that could've been a start for us to become a family. For that it is too late now and it may be too late for making amendments, but it's never too late to apologize. Not to me. (I'm clarifying that because Jenna says you need things spelled out.)_

 _I wish I knew you better._

 _With love,_

 _Damon_

 _Kidding ;)_

 _Your daughter, Elena"_

Gritting his teeth, John drew an unsteady breath but then almost dropped the letter caught off guard by a sudden, sobbing sound that Jenna made.

"I can't believe I missed that!" She whispered with tears in her eyes, shaking her head while still staring at the letter in her hands.

John looked at her, wondering if it would be nice or nosy to ask Jenna what made her so emotional, but then Jenna gave him the explanation without being prompted to do so.

In a voice quivering with emotion she said. "Leo won an Oscar!"

John just stared at her.

xxxdelenaxxx

Raised voices reached Elena half way through the stairs and with an anxious frown she hurried toward the part of the house where they were coming from.

She started worrying that Damon's father was more angry about their unplanned disappearance that he'd let on. Or perhaps it was her sister who was expressing her disapproval in regard to the wedding?

With a sinking heart Elena tried to make out the words, but before she reached the corridor leading to Giuseppe's office, someone caught her hand and pulled her into the music chamber.

She gasped in surprise, but then immediately calmed down when she realized who had grabbed her.

Emily made a quick, hushing gesture, motioning for Elena to speak quietly.

"I'm leaving," Emily whispered and Elena gave her a confused look, having already noticed Emily's traveling attire and not knowing what to think of it. "I have to."

"Why?"

"There is no time to explain. I just have to leave, because if I don't, something bad may happen to me. And I don't want to die, certainly not before I could see my daughter again," she added under her breath, clenching her jaw.

"Your daughter?" Elena's eyes widened in concern. "Do you need help? Can I help you somehow? Just tell me."

"No," Emily shook her head. "She is safe. Just not with me. I'm never safe," she said with a hint of grim bitterness in her voice. "I just wanted to tell you something before I leave," she continued, before Elena had a chance to interrupt her. "You and Katherine may not be sisters. I do not know that for sure, but in the two years that I have been traveling with her, she's never mentioned having a sister and I have never seen you, so at least the part about you living together is untrue."

"Why would she lie to me?" Elena asked, perplexed.

Emily grimaced, a sour smile flitting across her face. "Be careful with her. She is all lies and deceit. But you," Emily trailed off with another smile, but now not a sour but a genuinely pleased one. "You are a force to be reckoned with."

Elena smiled weakly, confused by Emily's words. She opened her mouth to speak, but Emily cut her off.

"Listen to me. It is important. I do not know where you are from, but you have to go back there before your child is born. If you don't, your child will die, do you understand?"

With a delay caused by dismay that flooded over her at Emily's words Elena nodded slowly.

"There is a thread you cannot see," Emily said, looking momentarily mesmerized and reaching out to take in between her fingers something that Elena indeed couldn't see no matter how closely she tried to follow Emily's gaze. "A thread of life. It is gold and bright and it will guide you through the night if need be, but if you do not leave in time it will be severed."

"But how can I go back to a place I don't remember?" Elena asked, barely able to keep up with Emily's revelations, but instinctively distraught that she might not be able to follow Emily's advice.

"I have to go and there is not much I can do for you, but there is one thing that can help. If you lost your memories in an ordinary accident, this will not work. But..." Emily reached into her pocket and pulled two small vials out of it, each vial filled with bright blue liquid. She took Elena's hand in hers and placed the vials in her palm. "If your memories were taken by magic, this potion will restore them." Emily chuckled weakly at the amazed look in Elena's eyes. "Maybe then you will know where you should go?" She gave Elena an encouraging smile before glancing toward the window, stepping aside and bidding her a goodbye. "Just get there in time."


	28. Chapter 28

A/N: Thank you **so much** for your amazing reviews! *hugs*

I'm sorry about the long wait, but this chapter ended up being _very_ long and it looks like the remaining nine chapters (yes, I finally managed to make an outline for the final part of this story, yay! lol) are going to be that way, so please be patient with me ;)

 **Chapter 28**

Elena walked out of the music chamber, still dazed from her encounter with Emily. She was holding the vials in her hand, almost afraid to breathe while looking at her closed fist, her mind reeling at the thought that soon she may remember her past, all of it.

"Elena." Damon grasped Elena's shoulders, accidentally almost running into her after storming out of Giuseppe's library and rushing through the hallway.

"Damon! We need to talk," Elena said with a tentative smile, wondering for a second why she was so certain that the potion would bring them good news.

Maybe her past wasn't happy? But even if it wasn't, she'd at least know the truth. She'd know what her life was really like and the truth, even most painful, was far more valuable than artificial oblivion.

Damon nodded with a slightly distracted frown, glancing over his shoulder toward the room where the unpleasant conversation with Giuseppe and Katherine had taken place. He heard the door being pushed open and even though he suspected it was just Stefan making to follow him, he didn't want for his brother to catch up with them right now, because he didn't decide yet if he was going to tell Elena about that ridiculous discussion at all. Then again he should probably warn Elena about her sister being capable of vicious slander. But that could wait until he came up with a delicate way to say it.

"Yes, let's go," Damon said, draping his arm around Elena and ushering her toward the door.

He noticed that she was holding something in her hand, but decided to ask her about it once they were out of the house.

"Let's take a walk by the river," Elena proposed, taking Damon's hand in her free one and pressing a soft kiss to his cheek that he returned twice after closing the door behind them.

"It does seem like an appropriate place to plan our wedding," Damon said with a small smile, sliding his fingers in between Elena's.

He'd been afraid that his mood was ruined for the day, but it seemed that all it took was for Elena to smile at him and everything was alright again.

"We also need to go to a seamstress," he pointed out, whirling Elena around and trailing kisses across her jawline before capturing her lips in an unhurried kiss.

"A seamstress! I forgot about that," Elena said, beginning to wonder if they were giving themselves enough time to actually prepare for a wedding, but at the same time she didn't wish for it to be postponed for any trivial reasons such as clothes.

"Tomorrow we also need to visit our Pastor and all the neighbors to invite them to the wedding."

"I would like that," Elena said with a smile. "But right now..." She squinted a little while lifting and opening her hand enough for Damon to see the vials in her palm.

"What are these?" Damon asked with a curious frown.

Elena chuckled under her breath, amused by her own words now that she had to say them out loud. "A magical potion that can restore our lost memories."

xxxdelenaxxx

"That was a short trip," Enzo succinctly pointed out, tilting his head to the side while looking toward the door with a sour expression on his face.

Jeremy was torn between offering a snappy retort and smiling at the sight of Alaric, but then he felt a pang of fear at seeing Enzo, Alaric, Isobel and his parents sitting all in one room in what appeared to be an amicable or perhaps more accurately an eerie silence.

"What is going on here?" His eyebrows knitted, Jeremy half-expected for someone to laugh at his slightly paranoid reaction, but unfortunately no one did.

"Is something wrong with Damon and Elena?" Stefan asked suspiciously, glancing at Bonnie who stopped abruptly in her tracks after entering the room in a fairly optimistic mood that evaporated within seconds.

"Wrong? Why?" Bonnie asked, giving Enzo a questioning glare as if she was somehow assuming that whatever had happened was his fault.

She was hoping that with Shane's help they could decipher the meaning of the thread and that, she presumed, was the only problem they currently had, so she couldn't imagine the reason behind everyone's grim facial expressions.

"They weren't gracious enough to drop us an e-mail yet, so we don't know," Enzo replied flippantly. "What we do know, however, is what that thread outside means," he muttered through his teeth.

Bonnie's eyes widened in surprise, but before she started smiling at the news, she realized that Enzo wasn't humorously bragging about solving the mystery. Just the opposite, in fact, which was a bad enough sign.

"What is it?" Bonnie prompted impatiently, but Miranda softly cut her off, rising to her feet while everyone else followed her suit.

There was something so utterly gloomy in the reluctant, tired way in which Isobel, Grayson, Alaric and Enzo stood up that it sent cold shivers up Bonnie's spine.

Jeremy and Stefan exchanged glances, not sure what to expect, subconsciously bracing themselves for bad news.

"Maybe you'd like to get some rest first? Refresh yourselves and then come back down to talk?" Miranda offered, glancing at Grayson.

"Mom, what's going on?" Jeremy asked with a worried frown.

"Does the thread mean something bad happened to Damon and Elena?" Desmond asked, unconsciously ignoring Miranda's words, too preoccupied with what Enzo had said.

"No, not exactly," Isobel said in a low, even voice, crossing her arms over her chest. "Not yet," she added with a bitter grimace flitting across her face.

"Not yet?" Lily asked so sharply that Stefan's eyes darted to her to see a facial expression that accompanied such a concerned tone.

But he didn't have time to dwell on the sincerity of Lily's reaction, his attention focused on Isobel's unsettling words.

"I know I bought too many things at the airport, you don't have to tell me," Jenna muttered, walking into the room and rolling her eyes at John who followed her into the room, carrying a few bags. "Why does everyone look like they just saw a-" She stopped abruptly in mid-sentence at the sight of someone she didn't expect to see. "Ghost."

Alaric smiled weakly. "Hello, Jenna," he said under his breath, giving her a look that seemed very sad, but there was also a glimpse of hope in it, as if he was genuinely glad to see her.

She forgot how much she liked that look of calming appreciation that his eyes used to acquire when he looked at her.

"Hi," Jenna mumbled in strained voice, staring at Alaric with wide eyes, too stunned to say anything more right away.

She thought she was doing really well these past few days, getting used to everything, getting used to being alive. But only now it fully registered with her that she had been dead. And now she was not.

She suddenly felt like she was thrown back in time to one ordinary, cloudy day shortly before she had died. The day when she'd felt happy. Hopeful. On the brink of a new chapter of her life.

"And who is that?" Grayson asked and Bonnie automatically followed his gaze to Shane who was standing near the wall, listening to the conversation in silence with what Grayson thought was a disturbingly intense kind of shrewdness on his face.

"That's Professor Atticus Shane," Bonnie said with a trace of impatience in her tone, feeling more anxious the more everyone seemed eager to evade explaining to them what exactly they had found out about the mystical thread. "He was going to help us figure out the thread, but since you already know what it is-"

" _History of Witchcraft_ ," Isobel cut in, slightly narrowing her eyes at Shane. "Are you the author?"

"Well, I was once," Shane replied with a brief, humorless smile, taking a few steps forward. "I hope it was readable," he added, giving Isobel a more careful look as if something in her face struck him.

"It was... comprehensive," Isobel stated in her non-melodic voice.

Shane's eyes lit up a little. "Probably more comprehensive than your _Crafting Loopholes_ , yes, but certainly not as... spellbinding."

Isobel narrowed her eyes at him, a faint smile flitting across her face.

"Isobel Flemming, isn't it?" Shane asked, tilting his head to the side.

Jeremy raised his eyebrows. "You know each other?"

"We haven't met," Shane said, glancing at Jeremy, "but I've read all of Ms. Flemming's essays and books. With pleasure."

"Great. Then I'm sure you'll have many things to talk about," Stefan said, exchanging a look with Bonnie. "But now could someone please finally tell us what did you find out about that thread while we were gone?"

xxxdelenaxxx

"Emily gave these to you?" Damon asked, watching Elena turn the vials in her hand and look at them with barely containable excitement that began worrying him.

He only didn't remember a few minutes of his life, apparently an hour or so and even that short amount of forgotten time bothered him, so he could easily imagine how difficult it was for Elena not to remember anything of her past. He didn't want her to feel that kind of discomfort, so if there was a way to remedy that, he wanted her to try it and regain her memories if it was really possible.

The clear water of the river sparkled in the sun, the humming of the current close enough to reverberate almost loudly in their ears.

And yet he was suddenly worried that if Elena regained her memories, she might remember something that could tear them apart. He'd never felt happier than when he was just looking into her eyes. What if she'd remember that it wasn't in his eyes where her happiness lay?

Elena was standing near the water edge, examining the vials in her hand. The wind was blowing her hair into her eyes and she lifted her hand to tuck the unruly strands behind her ear, her hand colliding with Damon's when he reached out to do just that. She smiled.

"What if it doesn't work?" Damon asked, trying to match her smile, but failing, which didn't escape Elena's attention. "What if it does?" He added before she had the time to answer the first question.

"What do you mean?" Elena asked, leaning into Damon's touch when he cradled her face in his hands.

"What if you remember that you love someone else?" Damon blurted out, a numb pain overpowering him for a few moments, ebbing slowly when Elena slid the vials into a small pocket in her dress, took his hands in hers and squeezed them, holding them tight near her heart.

"I love _you_ ," she whispered so ardently that Damon felt a warm glow spread across his chest. "We're gonna drink the magical potion and I'm still gonna love you, OK?" Elena said with a hint of playfulness in her tone, her eyes laughing.

Returning her smile, Damon nodded and leaned in for a kiss, his smile turning into a small grimace when he drew back, reluctantly breaking the kiss, Elena's lips still so close he could feel them tremble against his.

"I can't lose you," he whispered, tightening his embrace around her, his eyes roaming all over her face.

Elena squeezed his hands in hers again. "You won't," she said earnestly, giving him a warm, reassuring smile.

She pressed her lips to his in a soft kiss and then retrieved the vials from her pocket.

Damon grasped her hand. "Let me take it first. We will see what happens and if it is safe to take it."

Elena snorted weakly. "I'm not going to test this potion's safety on you. You only forgot an hour of your life or so. I forgot everything. I'm drinking it first."

She looked down at the vial to open it.

"No."

Elena looked up at Damon and gave him a questioning look that melted into a smile when he snatched the other vial out of her hand.

"We're taking it together."

xxxdelenaxxx

The stairs seemed endless, each step infinitely hard to take. Stefan felt as if merely lifting his foot took the greatest of efforts and he wasn't sure he could even make it across the corridor. He stopped half-way through and looked at the the dark walls, the hardwood floor, the intricate patterns on the carpet.

It seemed impossible to be walking around this house every day for the next thirty weeks or so, knowing that something horrible was going to happen. Knowing that there was nothing he could do about it.

Stefan dragged himself toward his room and slowly opened the door. He didn't know what was more cruel, all of them living with this knowledge for several months or Damon and Elena being oblivious to all this and then several months from now losing their child.

Stefan walked into the room and closed the door behind him, the quiet noise registering with him only when he took a few steps toward the bathroom where the sound was coming from.

"I knew you wouldn't mind," Rebekah said matter-of-factly when Stefan appeared in the doorway.

She smirked briefly, lowering herself deeper into the tub and almost disappearing into the bubble bath surrounding her, only her face and her pinned up hair visible above the surface.

Stefan merely leaned against the bathroom door frame with a soundless sigh. He looked past Rebekah, absently scanning his surroundings.

Rebekah watched him for a few seconds before she said in a low, serious voice. "I heard about Damon and Elena's baby. I'm sorry." Stefan's eyes shifted to her, but he didn't say anything. "This is going to be even worse than a miscarriage," she added after a pause so quietly as if she was talking to herself and looked away when Stefan's gaze became more focused.

She cleared her throat. "So. Stefan. What have you been up to these past few years?" She asked, trying to sound lighthearted, but her eyes remained unsmiling and Stefan looked at her with a pensive grimace thinking that her eyes looked older than the last time he'd seen her.

He slowly walked up to the bathtub and sat down on its edge. "Avoiding. Deflecting. Brooding. You?"

Rebekah pursed her lips in a humorless grimace. "Pretending to be someone I'll never be. Someone I never was," she added with a broken smile. "A happy human girl."

"Somehow I have a hard time believing you didn't nail being a California girl," Stefan said gently and Rebekah smiled a little more brightly.

"I was doing alright. I guess it was the being happy part that I was failing at." She gathered a handful of bubbles and blew them off her hand. "At first I had fun coming up with all those stories. My workaholic, overprotective dad. My wonderful mom who bakes the best apple pie in town. My brothers always competing on rival baseball teams. My Ivy League-bound sister with whom I loved playing dress-up in preschool."

"Until one day you grew tired of fiction."

"No," Rebekah said tonelessly, staring into the distance with unseeing eyes. "Then I realized everyone liked that girl." She shifted her eyes back to Stefan, her smile bitter. "Everyone liked that girl that I'd never be. And then I also realized they'd never like the person that I am. A thousand-year old ex-vampire with blood on her hands and a family full of deranged dead and undead people."

"You can't know that unless you gave them a chance," Stefan offered carefully.

"Without being able to compel them the moment they started freaking out? No, thank you, I don't think I was ever in the mood for taking that kind of risk."

"They wouldn't necessarily freak out," Stefan said matter-of-factly. "They would probably just calmly call 911."

Rebekah chuckled under her breath. "Well, I didn't fancy getting locked up in a mental institution either. Been there, done that." She tilted her head backwards, leaning it against the back of the tub. "It all felt like running all over again," she said in a low, resigned voice, looking up at the ceiling. "Only now not just from Mikael, but from everything and everyone, everyday."

"In other words, you're moving in for good," Stefan concluded in a mockingly unenthusiastic tone that made Rebekah splash the water over the sides of the bathtub when she sat up with a coy smile.

"Is that an invitation?"

Stefan smiled weakly. "It's..." he trailed off, looking at his hands as if he was searching for the right words. "It's good to see you," he said, shifting his eyes to Rebekah and holding her surprised gaze for a while before standing up.

"If you want, you can later come down to say hi to Shane," Stefan said before leaving the bathroom, managing not to smile despite a hilarious expression that appeared on Rebekah's face.

xxxdelenaxxx

The potion was cold and warm at the same time, no specific scent or taste, just an impression of swallowing rain followed by surges of electricity coursing through their veins, all the way to their heads where all the scattered impulses exploded into images, into sounds, into words.

Into memories.

Elena gasped, the blinding light flooding her senses, the ground seemingly disappearing from under her feet and only Damon's hand holding hers remained firm and real.

" _I can't be in Georgia!"_

" _I just have to say something."_

" _I was worried about you."_

" _I've never seen you more alive."_

It wasn't a walk down a memory lane. It was a high-speed flight through iridescent days and nights, cold mornings, sultry nights, ever-changing landscapes. A breathtaking journey graced with myriads of beginnings and no end.

" _Do you see a future with me? Because that's all I see."_

" _I'd rather spend every moment in agony than erase the memory of you."_

Damon's eyes snapped open, their surroundings falling back into place, the meadow, the river, the trees, the light, so much light.

" _I'm not sorry that I'm in love with you."_

"Damon!" Elena whispered, holding their entwined hands to her chest, trying to catch her breath.

Damon stared at her with wide eyes and then his mouth twitched into a feverish smile that made Elena laugh.

"Miss Gilbert, it's been too long," he said with a smirk in a mockingly ceremonious voice before cradling Elena's face in his hands and kissing her ravenously.

"I'm afraid there's not much use for remembering my last name now that it's about to change." Elena chuckled when they drew apart to look at each other.

Damon stifled a groan. "Yeah, about that..." he said with a speculative grimace. Elena gave him a curious look, but then laughed again when he added. "Now that I remember your terrible cooking skills, I don't know if-" He trailed off with a sigh, grinning when Elena trailed kisses across his lips, back and forth.

"We made it," she whispered, placing her hand on his cheek, drawing a deep breath and then exhaling with a grin.

"We survived it. Like we always do," Damon said with a crooked smile, smoothing out Elena's wind-ruffled hair, sliding his hands down her cheeks and leaning down to kiss her smiling lips again.

"Are you going to take back what you once said about the period look not suiting me?" Elena asked, looking herself up and down and then narrowing her eyes at Damon with an amused smile.

"Only if you insist I keep the hair," Damon offered.

Elena laughed and they kissed again, smiling in between the kisses. Elena wrapped her arms around Damon's neck, his hands getting lost in her hair.

Suddenly, Damon broke the kiss and looked at her with wide eyes, the expression that alarmed Elena at first, but only for a split second before she realized what he must've just realized.

"We're going to have a baby," Elena said quietly, smiling so much that she could hardly draw a breath deep enough to speak. "Our baby."

"Yes." Damon nodded, the news sinking in only now, the realization that it was really going to be their baby bringing not only joy, but also a strange sense of strength, as if all fear was from now on abolished, because they had to be brave and fearless at all cost for something beyond themselves.

Holding Elena in a tight embrace Damon kissed her passionately, but after a few moments of relishing in her closeness, in the movement of her soft lips against his, he suddenly felt that Elena stopped kissing him back.

He drew back with a concerned look that only grew more serious and anxious when he noticed a petrified expression on Elena's face. She looked paler than he'd ever seen her.

"Elena?"

Damon reached out, cupping her cheeks in his palms, his eyes searching Elena's face.

"Elena, what's wrong?"

"Emily said-" Elena started but then trailed off with a stifled gasp, her eyes filling up with tears.

"What?" Damon prompted impatiently, brushing the tears off Elena's cheeks, trying to guess the reason for the horrified look on her face before she'd find the words to explain it. "Elena?"

"She said that I have to go back to where I'm from. If I don't- if I don't, the baby's going to die," she uttered the last words barely above a whisper.

Damon stared at her in silence, his mind completely blank for a few seconds before he collected himself enough to speak. "But we are in Mystic Falls-" He started, grasping at hope, but Elena shook her head.

"Emily told me earlier she could sense I wasn't from here and from _now_. She didn't know what it meant and I didn't make much of it when she said it, but now..." Elena grimaced. "Now I know what she meant. Damon, we have to go back, we have to-" She stopped in mid-sentence, stifling a sob. "But we can't go back, can we? That spell was irreversible and even if it was reversible, we couldn't go back, because of Kai's spell-"

"Elena," Damon interrupted her in a low, resolute tone, Elena's eyes darting to him, her eyes shining with feverish dismay.

"Maybe we don't have to reverse that spell, maybe Emily or someone else could just cast a new one? If there's a loophole to all this we'll find it. And there are always loopholes," Damon said in the most reassuring tone he could muster.

He was looking at Elena without blinking, waiting to see a glimmer of hope in her eyes, but all he could see was more tears.

"But Kai's spell-" Elena repeated and Damon lightly touched her lips with his fingertips, hushing her gently, his eyes boring into hers, a small, determined smile flitting across his face.

"Elena. We'll find a way to go back and we _are_ going back. I've been living on a borrowed time for a long time now." He shook his head when Elena opened her mouth to speak, silently asking her to allow him to continue. "I'm grateful for every single day that I got to be with you." He grazed Elena's lips with his thumb, slowly lifting his other hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

The look in his eyes was so reminiscent of his first love confession that Elena felt her heart break at what it meant. They had wiped all the hopelessness out of that infinitely beautiful moment in the past, but now it felt as if hopelessness was sneaking back in.

"We'll go back home and you're going to have our baby and one day you're going to tell him or her all about us, OK?"

Elena wanted to nod, if only because of Damon's eyes pleading with her to do so, but she grimaced instead and then burst into tears, her arms locking around Damon's neck.

"I can't lose our baby," she whispered against his cheek and then tilted her head to look at him, his forehead pressing against hers. "But I can't lose you either."

Damon smiled wistfully, tightening his embrace around her. "We came here running away from saying a goodbye, but maybe there was never a way out. Maybe there's only so many times you can outrun death and I outran it more than once."

"Maybe if you stayed here-" Elena cut in, struck by the thought, but Damon cut her off.

"There's only one me here, which means that I have to leave to keep the past and the future intact. And even if I could stay, I wouldn't want to stay here without you. Elena," he continued before Elena managed to interrupt him. He pressed his lips to hers before drawing back to look at her. "There will be time to say goodbye. Right now we have to find a way to go back. That's the most important thing."

Elena exhaled sharply, blinking back the tears incessantly welling up in her eyes. "It is," she whispered hollowly, the words materializing in her mind into the certainty of what they really meant.

Right now nothing else mattered, but finding their way back. If she let herself focus on anything else, she wouldn't be able to find the strength to carry on. But as long as she focused on saving their child, there was no hesitation, no sadness or fear. Only a simple, unwavering conviction that they had to make it happen no matter what.

"Where do we start?" Elena asked, making an effort to keep her voice from faltering.

She raised her hand to wipe the tears off her face and smiled weakly when Damon beat her to it.

"Let's start with Emily and then we can also search the Council's secret library," Damon said with a pensive frown, squinting intensely into the distance.

"You know where it is?" Elena asked, grasping his hand and pressing it to her cheek.

"No, but I think I can find out." Damon smiled, leaning down to kiss the remnants of tears from the corners of Elena's eyes. "A little known 1864 fun fact that would boggle Caroline's mind? Winston Forbes is the Council's records keeper and he happens to be rather fond of me."

xxxdelenaxxx

Caroline did her best to ignore Klaus watching her intently for the last half an hour, but at last she had enough of it and dropping her pen on the table, she leaned back in her chair giving Klaus a hard stare.

"Could you get that _'I-expect-a-lecture'_ look off your face? I can't work when you're looking at me like that."

Klaus' expression brightened a little. "I'm simply waiting for further instructions. You said you needed help, but it seems that other than sorting out your notes there's nothing else for me to do here."

Caroline glanced at the post-it notes on her table. "And yet you failed even on that one task. You grouped them all wrong." Klaus raised his eyebrows, sincerely surprised. "I don't need them grouped according to some categories. I wanted them grouped according to colors," Caroline explained, quickly rearranging the notes, so all the yellow ones were in one row, followed by pink and purple ones.

When she finished doing that, she looked up, narrowing her eyes at Klaus who wasn't even trying not to look amused.

"Fine." Caroline swiftly rose to her feet and walked around her desk to stand in front of Klaus who was sitting in an armchair across from her.

She leaned against her desk and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Do you think I'm not scared?" She started and the seriousness of her tone made the amusement vanish off Klaus' face. "You didn't know me when I was human," Caroline said wryly, looking away while Klaus' eyes remained fixed on her. "I didn't like myself and I don't want to go back to being that person." She grimaced, shifting her eyes back to Klaus. "I know it doesn't work that way, but I can't help fearing that becoming human means going back to feeling weak, insecure and invisible and I don't want that." Looking straight into Klaus' eyes, her forehead wrinkling, Caroline smiled weakly. "But here is the downside to becoming a better version of yourself. You've gotta keep up. You have to do the right thing even if it scares the hell out of you."

The buzzing of Klaus' phone saved him the necessity to respond, although he held Caroline's gaze for a few more seconds before accepting the call.

He smiled at the sound of Hope's voice.

"Daddy! When is the next full moon going to be?" Hope asked right away and Klaus' smile faded a little.

"Grandma Liz and I _just_ made cookies-" Hope stopped in mid-sentence, making a brief hissing sound. "They are _still_ hot! And I wanted to save..." She lowered her voice to a whisper while counting under her breath, "seven cookies for Mommy, but they're only going to be fresh for..." She trailed off and Caroline could hear her mother's voice in the background apparently answering Hope's hushed question regarding the duration of cookies' freshness. "Two days!"

Caroline watched the changing expressions on Klaus' face, his jaw clenched, his eyes wandering around the room as if he was trying to find a way out of a cage.

"Daddy?"

Klaus took the phone in his hand. "I'll need to check about the full moon. I'll call you back, sweetheart."

Caroline narrowed her eyes at him. "Seriously?" She asked, when Klaus ended the call.

Klaus stormed to his feet. "What do you think is the first thing Hayley's going to do when her curse is lifted?" He asked in the kind of controlled, raised voice that Caroline couldn't help but like.

He was the only person she knew that didn't sound like he was shouting even when he was in fact doing just that.

"She's going to take my daughter away from me!"

"Don't you think that's a rather hypocritical accusation considering that right now she's the one able to only see her daughter once a month?" Caroline said, straightening up and giving Klaus a challenging look when he looked slightly taken aback by her immediate retort. "Thanks to you."

"I didn't do it on purpose. I-"

"Yes, I know the whole collateral damage story," Caroline cut him off with a huff. "That _may_ work as your excuse for the past. For the future, however, it doesn't work at all." She walked up to Klaus. "I refuse to believe that the most fearsome vampire in all history is afraid of a custody battle. Because you do realize that with everyone being human and no magic in the sidelines that's the worst case scenario."

Klaus looked away with a frown, but a frown petulant enough to make Caroline smile.

xxxdelenaxxx

Raised voices and general commotion greeted Damon and Elena upon their return, more than a dozen people gathered in front of the Salvatore house, even more people watching the scene from the distance.

"What's going on here?" Damon asked, walking up toward them with Elena by his side.

A few heads immediately turned into their direction and Elena could tell that at least some of the people gathered, including Giuseppe, looked quite startled by the demanding and slightly abrupt tone of Damon's voice.

"You're back!" Stefan exclaimed, relieved, but before Elena interpreted his reaction as dictated by worrying they wouldn't make it on time for the supper the third time in the row, she noticed the reason for his distress.

"Emily!" Elena's eyes widened at the sight of Emily standing with her hands and ankles bound with thick ropes.

"What are you doing to her?" Damon asked, shifting his eyes between everyone.

"She was trying to escape." Jonathan Gilbert replied in a defiant tone, thrusting up his chin. "Thankfully, Miss Pierce alerted us early enough, so she didn't make it far before we captured her."

"Captured her?" Elena repeated the words with a grimace of utmost indignation, her eyes meeting Jonathan Gilbert's stunned gaze, as if he was confused by her interrupting him at all. "How can you say that? What does it even mean? What right do you have to treat her like that? She didn't do anything!"

Scanning all the faces in the small crowd Elena wondered where Katherine was. Was she watching the scene from the windows? Or maybe she left for the day under some pretext? Was it at this time of the year that Anna and her mother came to town? Elena bit her lip, regretting she hadn't been paying more attention to the chronology of events before. There was something grimly funny about the fact that even though they were in the past she still wasn't sure what was going to happen.

"Let her go!" Damon requested sharply, glaring at the Lockwood brothers who were holding Emily by her arms. " _Now_."

He widened his eyes at them in such a threatening way that they exchanged baffled looks and then looked to their father for support.

Winston Forbes cleared his throat, clearly finding the situation unfortunate and unpleasant, but he also seemed rather reluctant to take a stand.

"What kind of tone is this?" Giuseppe cut in, walking up to Damon and Elena from where he was standing with his hands clasped behind his back. "You are forgetting your place! Ordering my guests, my friends around? Have you gone mad?"

"I'm sorry, does your hospitality extend to allowing your guests manhandle innocent women?" Damon snapped.

Giuseppe stopped dead in his tracks, rendered speechless by Damon's tone and words.

Elena glanced at Damon a little worried that his behavior was going to give them away, although of course it was highly unlikely anyone would guess or believe their story, so Damon's behavior couldn't do much more than bewilder everyone...

Or exuberantly impress, for that matter, Elena thought, noticing the look on Stefan's face.

"I'm afraid there are valid reasons to believe the young lady practices witchcraft," Winston Forbes said sadly with genuine regret in his voice.

Damon rolled his eyes and ignoring a series of stunned gasps, leaped toward Emily and pushed the Lockwood brothers away from her. He intended to limit violence to that, but since the two men attempted to return the favor, to Stefan's further amazement, Damon knocked them to the ground.

"What is the meaning of this?" George Lockwood demanded, offended on the behalf of his sons, directing an upset, questioning glare at Giuseppe who looked rather befuddled by what was happening.

"You can all go home, the show is over," Damon called out, glancing around while kneeling down to untie Emily's feet.

"We cannot let her go! She is a peril to everyone in town!" Jonathan Gilbert protested, perplexed by the turn of events.

"Really? What evil crimes has she committed so far?" Damon asked, giving him a pointed look.

Emily slowly shifted her eyes from Damon to Elena who had followed Damon and was now untying Emily's wrists.

"Thank you," Emily said quietly.

Elena tossed the ropes away and gave her a small smile. "Thank _you_ ," she said sincerely, squeezing Emily's hands in a grateful gesture, but with a smile that Emily noticed was tinted with sadness.

"She didn't hurt anyone!" Stefan pointed out, joining Damon and Elena's side with enthusiasm that only fueled Giuseppe's rage.

"Perhaps not yet," Henry Fell observed with a stern frown. "But who knows-"

"So far Emily only _healed_ one person," Elena countered in a decisive tone. "She healed Hazel's hands."

"So she _is_ a witch!" Jonathan Gilbert concluded triumphantly.

"If I were you, I'd be more worried about other species," Damon replied sharply, glancing at Elena who started tugging on his sleeve. "And if you want to burn someone alive, I may just provide you with the name of a better candidate for that."

"Damon!..."

"What?" Damon asked with a frown, the look in his eyes already signaling he was going to go along with whatever Elena was going to say, although he wasn't necessarily happy about it.

"You're going to mess up the future!" Elena whispered, leaning toward him as close as possible, so no one would hear what she was saying, although Emily and Stefan were standing near enough to hear them anyway. "Damon!" She prompted when Damon didn't immediately respond to her words and just started gazing stubbornly into the distance.

"I'm just counting to _eighty_ in order not to go get a stake to run through her heart!" Damon explained in a hushed, aggravated tone. "Or whatever she has in her chest instead of it."

Stefan blinked, perplexed, his eyes shifting between Damon and Elena in an attempt to understand what they were talking about.

Elena sighed. "We can't go around changing the past, Damon. It's not going to help."

"I know," Damon grunted with a grimace.

"I'm sorry, but... what are you talking about?" Stefan decided to finally ask, his eyes flickering between Damon and Elena so fast his head was beginning to hurt.

Damon shifted his eyes to Stefan and looked at him pensively for a few seconds as if only now he realized Stefan was standing next to him. "You're probably better off not knowing," Damon said after a pause with a sour smile, tapping Stefan on the shoulder. "But it's good to see you, brother."

Stefan glanced at Elena to confirm that he wasn't the only one finding Damon's behavior a strange, but to his confusion Elena didn't look baffled at all and only gave him a wistful smile similar to the one Damon was giving him.

"Are you feeling alright?" Stefan asked, but his question got lost among angry voices, the discussion becoming more and more heated.

"This is an unacceptable intrusion!" George Lockwood insisted, puzzled by Giuseppe's unresponsiveness.

The man seemed angry and yet he was yet to take a decisive action and put his son in place.

"Well..." Unexpectedly, Winston Forbes cleared his throat and spoke up, causing everyone's attention to shift to him. "Actually, it seems the boy is right."

Jonathan Gilbert's eyes flew wide open. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Miss Bennett," Winston went to explain, ignoring George Lockwood's loud snort, "indeed hasn't hurt anyone, so do we have a right to assume she will?"

"You are not serious!" George Lockwood exclaimed.

"This is becoming tedious," Giuseppe suddenly cut in, becoming annoyed by the entire situation and giving everyone an equally angry glare. Such a scene in front of his house! "I apologize for bringing all of you here for naught. Perhaps we should discuss it tomorrow at a more convenient hour and in a more appropriate place."

"Are you going to take responsibility for what the _witch_ might do before tomorrow?" George Lockwood demanded, giving Giuseppe an incredulous look.

"Yeah, I know it sucks your evening's gonna to be as boring as usual, but we'll be fine. Take your wolf boys and pitchforks and go home, George," Damon said dismissively, turning away from him.

"Damon!..." Elena whispered, admonishing him with her eyes.

With a sigh, Damon reluctantly turned around. "I mean, _yes_ , we will personally make sure that everything is going to be alright. All the well-esteemed souls that kindly gathered in front of our cherished homestead today, may now return to their safe, happy homes." He tilted his head to the side, his forehead almost touching the side of Elena's head. "Better?" He asked in a conspiratorial whisper.

Elena narrowed her eyes at him, refusing to smile.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Thank you!" Shane said with a hint of genuine gratitude in his voice that Sheila found both perfectly polite and unnerving, although she was aware the latter impression was mostly caused by her own attitude.

Shane took the tea cup out of Sheila's hands and placed it on a small table nearby, his other hand still clasped around the cover of the Grimoire of Antecedents.

After looking up at Sheila to give her a smile, his eyes returned to the page he was reading, but only for a few moments, because he quickly realized Bonnie's grandmother was still staring down at him.

"I'm sorry, have I-"

"Done something wrong?" Sheila snorted wryly. "You mean apart from introducing my granddaughter to Expression?"

Shane stifled a weak smile, closing the grimoire and nodding a little in understanding.

"Grams." Bonnie strolled into the room carrying a stash of papers she dropped on the couch next to Shane. "Is this really necessary? Or relevant? I died like three times since then."

"No, your grandmother is right, Bonnie," Shane said matter-of-factly, looking up at Sheila with an acknowledging frown. "I should explain-"

He trailed off when Bonnie slumped into an armchair with a tired groan. "Please. Can we discuss my brush with dark magic after we find a way to save Damon and Elena's baby? On that note," Bonnie continued when Sheila sat down in an armchair across from her, still glancing at Shane in a distrustful way. "Why didn't you tell me what you knew about that thread, Grams?" Sheila's eyes shifted to Bonnie. "Because you knew, right? That's why you didn't tell me. To keep me from agonizing over not being able to do anything about what that thread means."

"I think you just answered your own question, child," Sheila said in a low voice, giving Bonnie a dejected smile. "If I knew about a solution I'd tell you. But what's use to know about the misery that can't be remedied?"

Bonnie opened her mouth to reply, but then hers and her grandmother's eyes darted to Shane who flipped the Grimoire of Antecedents upside down, the book falling back into his hands with a loud thud.

Bonnie and Sheila exchanged confused glances.

Without looking up at them, Shane opened the book again, now starting from its back cover, a frown of concentration on his face slowly turning into a look that Bonnie found even more familiar than any of his grim looks, a glint of almost childish enthusiasm lighting up his features.

"Did you find something?" Bonnie asked dubiously, not sure if reading the grimoire backwards was going to help.

Shane bit back a snort, turning the grimoire around for Bonnie and Sheila to see all the pages he'd been looking at.

Bonnie frowned.

The pages were empty.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I think we should talk to Emily first thing in the morning," Elena said in a low voice, snuggling closer into Damon's arms, running her fingertips across his chest while they were lying on their sides in Damon's bed, making plans for the next day.

Elena wasn't sure if it was more heartbreaking or heartwarming that getting a wedding dress was a part of the same schedule that included searching for a way to reverse a time travel spell to save their baby.

"We will," Damon said reassuringly, brushing Elena's cheek with the backs of his fingers.

Elena gave him a faint smile. She closed her eyes, trying to retrieve that sense of tranquility she'd almost lost today when the joy of the realization they were going to be parents was crushed by dismay and fear that their journey back in time could prove deadly for their child.

"I'm sorry, Elena. We should've never come here. I'm sorry I made you do this," Damon said in a low, hollow voice, the words immediately shaking Elena out of her reverie.

"You didn't make me do anything. It was my idea to begin with, remember?"

Damon smiled bitterly. "But I should've said no. It was selfish. I just couldn't not take that chance to be with you, to build a future with you. And now because of that-"

"This is not your fault, Damon." Elena interrupted him with a vehement frown, placing her hand on his cheek and making him look at her. "We wanted to be together. We made that decision together."

Leaning into her touch, Damon turned his head to press a few kisses to the inside of Elena's hand.

"And we'll find a way out together, I promise you," he whispered firmly, inching his face closer to hers when Elena's expression fell. "Elena."

Elena's gaze shifted to his, all of her thoughts as clear in her eyes as her tears.

"No more goodbyes. We've said them enough times. Let's live every day that we have left as if it was the last one. Let's be happy. I don't want you to remember our last moments together as some miserable time spent on crying."

Elena winced, tears escaping from under her closed eyelids despite her attempt to keep them at bay. "I love you," she whispered against Damon's mouth before pressing her lips against his so hard she thought they might bleed. "When you died, I died with you. That's what it felt like. That's what it was. Don't ask me not to cry, because crying reminds me that I'm still alive."

"Elena." Damon gathered her into his arms and rolled them over, cupping her face in his hands while hovering over her. "All I ever wanted, ever since I met you, ever since I fell in love with you was for you to be happy, to feel breathlessly alive every day. It's still possible."

"Not without you," Elena protested shakily.

Damon shook his head, lightly touching the tip of Elena's nose with his fingertip. "Not without _you_." He leaned down and kissed her. "You have to make that choice. To be happy. For yourself." He brushed his lips against hers, kissing her tenderly after each short sentence. "For me. For our child."

Burying his face into Elena's hair, he felt a pang of pain at the thought that he wasn't even going to find out if they had a daughter or a son... which seemed like such a minor detail and yet the realization hurt, because it symbolized his impeding absence from their child's life in the most acutely painful way.

Closing her eyes, Elena locked her arms around Damon, but the moment was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door.

Propping his chin on Elena's shoulder Damon glanced at the clock. It was too late for anyone to come visit.

"Damon?" Giuseppe's voice resounded on the other side of the door and Elena's hand flew to her mouth in sudden, absurd panic that it would be most awkward for Giuseppe to walk in on them like that.

Pressing a hurried kiss to Damon's lips, she patted him on the shoulder and motioned for him to move despite Damon wordlessly insisting that he could simply pretend to be asleep.

"One moment," Damon reluctantly called out, the sight of Elena sneaking into his wardrobe cheering him up a little.

If only that was the extent of their problems now, keeping up 19th century moral appearances.

Damon grabbed his clothes and quickly got dressed before walking up to the door to open it.

"I know it's late," Giuseppe said brusquely, but with a strangely uncertain look on his face that Damon couldn't quite interpret. "May I come in?"

Entertaining the idea of saying 'no' followed by slamming the door in Giuseppe's face, Damon moved out of the way.

"It's not like I was sleeping," Damon said, but heeding Elena's advice to keep his tone mild, he wasn't sure Giuseppe could infer any irony in it.

"I didn't think so."

Biting back all the comments that were coming to his mind, Damon waited for Giuseppe to continue, puzzled by him just walking up to the window and looking out of it for a longer while.

He was about to throw caution to the wind in favor of saying something that could at least provide Elena with something fun, like fighting off laughter, to do, but then Giuseppe spoke up.

"Your mother liked the view from this side of the house. There used to be a pond over there."

Damon frowned, stumped by Giuseppe's words.

Grunting a non-committal acknowledgment, Damon closed the door, somehow sensing that the conversation was going to take longer than he'd expected.

"It has been a long day, hasn't it?" Giuseppe said, finally averting his eyes from the window and turning toward Damon, his features even sharper in the dimly lit room. Sharper and sad, but that, Damon thought, was probably a trick of light as well.

"I guess so," Damon agreed cautiously, hoping that Giuseppe would not proceed to discussing the wedding, because he was too tired to argue in a civilized way and he didn't feel Elena would appreciate if the conversation escalated into a loud argument that would wake everyone in the house.

"I got this letter today," Giuseppe said, lifting a small envelope in between his fingers and only then Damon noticed that he had it in his hand. "You've been drafted into the army." Giuseppe held Damon's gaze without blinking as if he expected a strong reaction from him, but Damon's only reaction was an indifferent nod. "I'm told you volunteered."

"Told by whom?"

"Does it matter?" Giuseppe shrugged off the question, placing the letter on the table and turning his gaze to the window again.

Damon glanced toward the wardrobe, glad when he noticed a crack in between the doors. He didn't think Giuseppe's visit would take that long and he was worried Elena might start having trouble breathing.

"It was foolhardy of you, defending that witch girl today against everyone," Giuseppe said, changing the subject yet again. "But perhaps assuming she was at fault by her gift alone was ill-advised as well," he added with a rare trace of thoughtfulness in his voice that made Damon pause. "And as for your betrothed-"

"If this is about-" Damon interrupted him brusquely, but Giuseppe raised his hand in a silencing gesture and continued.

"I didn't believe a word her sister said about her today." He narrowed his eyes at his shoes before lifting his eyes to meet Damon's surprised gaze. "But one fact remains. In any case, I do not feel it is my place to oppose you marrying her if you trust her and if you believe her feelings for you are sincere."

Damon blinked rapidly, all the while wondering where Giuseppe was going with his speech, because he was speaking with a strange mixture of hastiness and reluctance to his tone, as if he was forcing himself to orderly enunciate everything he'd planned to say.

"Everything you did today was incredibly foolish," Giuseppe stated firmly, as if that was the only sentence he could utter without an effort. He frowned and after a prolonged moment of silence added in a low voice. "But right. Your mother would be proud of you." Leaning forward as if he was impatient to get to the door, Giuseppe remained in the same place for three more seconds before he finally headed for the door in fast strides, stopping abruptly with his hand on the knob. "I am proud of you too."

Damon turned his head to look at him, but Giuseppe was already out of his room, the door closing behind him with a soundless thud.

Frozen to the spot, Damon stared into the empty space in disbelieving confusion until a quiet, creaking sound managed to shake him out of his stupor and his eyes met Elena's soft gaze when she stepped out of the wardrobe, wrapped in his white shirt.

Leaning her head against the inside of the door she gave Damon a small smile and then tiptoed to him.

"1864 would've been such a much better year with you here, Elena," Damon whispered, still frowning.

Cradling his face in her hands, Elena shook her head with a weak snort. "This wasn't about me at all," she said, sliding her arms around Damon's neck and hugging him to her.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I don't understand," Bonnie muttered, glancing at her grandmother whose facial expression unexpectedly became less disdainful and more intrigued. "Why the pages are blank when you're trying to read the grimoire upside down?"

"But I'm not trying to read it upside down," Shane replied with a ghost of a mischievous smile flickering across his lips that made Bonnie smile a little, reminding her of all the reasons why she'd learned to like her gift, appreciate her magic for what it was without loathing it for all the bad things that it could bring. "I'm trying to read it from the end."

Bonnie looked at Shane with a confused frown.

"But you can't," Sheila said with a hint of wonder in her voice.

Shane gave her an enthusiastic nod. "I've read every book on magic out there and I've never heard of an irreversible spell."

Bonnie's eyes darted to his. "You mean this spell can be reversed?"

To her disappointment Shane shook his head, but then smiled again.

"It doesn't need to be reversed, Bonnie," he said, glancing at Sheila who seemed to already understand what he was saying. "It's a loop spell. It's supposed to reverse itself."


	29. Chapter 29

A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for your fantastic reviews! :):):)

It's been almost a month since the last update, so I'll keep this A/N short. Good news, bad news, awesome news and news you-will-just-have-to-deal-with are all coming up in the next A/N, though ;)

 **Chapter 29**

Dreams, dark and tiring like nightmares in disguise, made Elena wake up in the middle of the night with stinging tears in her eyes.

The sky was colorless, rays of pale light beginning to crawl over the bed. Elena's gaze was following each line on Damon's face with intensity of a touch. She didn't want to wake him up, didn't want him to worry that instead of sleeping she'd been watching him for most of the night. He was real. They were real, everything that had happened to them, everything they had was so real that she couldn't stand the thought that they soon might become merely a story in their child's life.

What use there would be to tell their child that they always survived if they didn't? What use there would be to tell their child that they always found their way back to each other if they let some evil spell tear them apart before he or she was even born?

Soundlessly inching her face closer to Damon's, Elena interlaced her fingers with his more tightly and closed her eyes. But instead of letting sleep overcome her and let her mind meander, she focused on visualizing their future the way she wanted it to be.

They'd get out of here. They'd go back home. They were going to survive. Their child was going to survive. Damon was going to live.

Drawing a sharp breath Elena imagined the three- four- five! of them sitting on the carpet in their home one day, in front of the fireplace, the Christmas tree tall and bright, Elena holding an infant in her arms, Damon and Denver putting together a train track and Atlanta climbing over the couch, asking to hear the time-travel story again.

Elena opened her eyes, lifting her hand to Damon's face when he shifted in his sleep. She ran her fingers through his hair and lowered her head onto the pillow. Smiling faintly, she brushed the backs of her fingers across Damon's cheek and then tucked her hand under her head.

Damon grimaced and growled under his breath in protest.

Elena stifled a chuckle, quickly lifting her hand back to his face and snuggling into his chest when he gathered her into his arms, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

xxxdelenaxxx

"But _why_ it is a loop spell?" Jenna asked, shifting her eyes between Shane and a diagram he'd drawn on a large piece of paper Jeremy was holding up with amazing amount of patience.

"Because this spell was designed as an escape spell," Shane went to explain again, undeterred by being repeatedly asked the same questions and by the skeptical attitude of at least several people in the room. "And as an escape spell, it was meant to be considered irreversible, that's why the spell itself doesn't contain any indication that it can be reversed."

Jenna sighed, the barely containable boundless excitement in Shane's voice making her question his credentials at first, but the more she listened to him the more she was certain that even if he wasn't exactly sane, he was definitely knowledgeable and seemed sincere in his enthusiasm.

"And yet you did figure it out," Grayson pointed out skeptically.

He wished to believe the man's every word, but one thing he learned listening about all the things that had happened to Elena and her friends during the last few years was that no venture that relied on magic ever went very smoothly.

"Dad, I'm sure Bonnie would be happy to explain just how much of an expert Shane is, but maybe we should move on to other things," Jeremy said, glancing at Grayson from behind the diagram.

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at Jeremy, exchanging a look with Shane who snorted under his breath.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but what I got so far is that there's still nothing we can do about all this," Alaric said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well, that's the point of a loop spell," Shane said, still exhibiting no trace of annoyance in his voice whatsoever. "It reverses itself. If it was possible to reverse it from the outside, so to speak, it'd become a threat to the people using it. The only way to keep this spell safe from being controlled by others, was to make it immune to any form of control."

"I guess what Ric's asking is whether we know how this spell is going to reverse itself?" Isobel interjected, watching Shane with a pensive expression on her face.

His attitude was reminding her about how she'd felt at the beginning of her studies. She'd felt like she'd finally discovered her life's purpose, like there were things in the world worth discovering, like it was possible to be happy. But she'd lost that sense of purpose somewhere along the way and she found it beyond curious that he apparently managed to keep it, despite everything that she'd heard had happened to him.

"Exactly," Alaric confirmed and Jenna's eyes flickered between him and Isobel when they glanced at each other.

Their interactions seems casual enough, but Jenna wasn't sure if this interpretation wasn't mostly dictated by her wishful thinking.

"No way to tell," Shane replied with disarming openness, extending his arms in a hopeless gesture.

"What do you mean?" Miranda asked with a worried frown.

"I'm sorry, so what's the point to all these doodles?" John asked, pointing to the diagram.

"John," Miranda gave him a mildly scolding look, considering it probably unwise and certainly rude to talk this way to someone who was obviously trying to help.

"I was trying to explain how the loop spell works," Shane said simply, which only seemed to fuel John's irritation.

"Like Shane already mentioned, a loop spell includes a reversal trigger," Bonnie decided to interfere, talking a step closer toward everyone. "The trigger's not on our side. It's on Damon and Elena's side. They have to... do something to trigger the reversal. They probably can't do it consciously," she added quickly, noticing that John was about to interrupt her.

"Certainly not consciously," Shane corrected matter-of-factly.

"You do realize how this sounds?" Enzo muttered, giving Shane a stern look. "What if whatever might trigger the reversal never happens?"

Shane's mouth twitched into a brief smile. "I'd have a little more faith in them."

Lily's eyes shifted to Desmond who straightened up in his seat, having been listening to the entire presentation in complete silence so far.

"They have to prove that their reasons for using the spell are valid," Desmond said suddenly in a low, pensive voice, his words drawing everyone's attention.

He looked up at Shane who to everyone's confusion nodded, his eyes smiling. "Simple rules of alchemy, eh?"

"Could someone elaborate for those slower on the uptake?" Jenna asked wryly.

Shane gave her a quick smile. "As you know, the spell was designed for witches and vampires who were in love, but couldn't be together, because no coven would approve of that. The time-travel spell was supposed to allow them to be together, however the time-travel part was nothing but a disguise." Shane said, scanning the room with his eyes narrow, his voice so energetic that it made Lily understand why Desmond was listening to him so intently.

There was hope emanating from the man's voice, hope that Desmond needed. That everyone needed. Lily gritted her teeth. That she needed.

"Traveling back in time _and_ staying there would unravel the past," Shane continued, gesticulating, "and witches who created that spell weren't rebels who wanted to go against the basic rule of balance. They just wanted to be happy. So in keeping with all the rules, the time-travel was not supposed to last." He looked around the room and added, squinting. "It was a test meant to prove to their covens that their love was worth their approval. And the proof of that, was that they would come back."

"I can't decide if this sounds like a vicious circle kind of thing or just plain nonsense," John grunted, glancing at his brother.

Grayson looked conflicted, watching Shane with a deep frown on his face.

"Are you trying to say that they come back if they love each other enough?" Miranda asked incredulously.

"Witches are a complicated lot," Shane said, glancing at Bonnie and then looking away as if he was searching for the right words. "Loving someone too much and loving someone right are sometimes two different things and all covens are always most concerned with what's right."

"Either way, I don't think that's the part we have to worry about," Stefan observed gloomily, looking up.

Lily and Desmond looked at Stefan who had also been very quiet during Shane's numerous speeches.

Stefan exchanged a grim look with Bonnie, who seemed to understand that he felt that asking too many questions right now was pointless anyway, because it seemed that either way everything was going to end in a tragedy.

"If they don't come back, their child will die. And if they do come back, Damon will," Bonnie murmured somberly.

But before the bleak silence filled the room, Rebekah's voice startled everyone.

"Not necessarily," she said, stepping into the room from the dark hallway where she'd been standing for a while now, unnoticed. Stefan's eyes darted to her and she smirked, smoothing our her bright pink dress in a lazy gesture. "Funny that Caroline hasn't mentioned Elijah's little plan to you yet. Looks like her loyalties don't lie with you lot. Interesting," she added with another smile, shifting her eyes to Stefan who looked anything but amused.

"What are you talking about?" Jeremy asked, giving Rebekah a questioning look.

"This awkward moment when we're all going to be on the same side." Rebekah flashed a grin at everyone. "Apparently, it's happening right now."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Would you like me to pass something to you?" Stefan asked after a few moments of watching Damon turning the knife in his hand over and over and over again, his eyes fixed on an empty breakfast plate in front of him.

Elena glanced at Damon whose eyes turned to Stefan.

"Since you're asking." Damon raised his hand with the knife. "Could you get me a wooden one?"

"Damon!..." Elena whispered, widening her eyes at him.

She could see out of the corner of her eye Katherine's mouth twitch, a glimpse of angry bewilderment flashing in her eyes.

Ever since she'd heard about their stupid stunt with saving Emily, Katherine felt that something was going on. The way they looked at her seemed to change overnight. There was something different about their behavior, especially Damon's.

First of all, she actually didn't expect him to resist her revelations concerning Elena with such unwavering stamina, but she quickly discarded that as a manifestation of weakness. Apparently, the fool was really in love with that dull doppelganger and consequently blind to any reasonable arguments, so Katherine expected him act a little hostile toward her from now on, but thought it'd make compelling him all the more fun. However, all of a sudden, he started acting completely hostile, not a trace of his earlier sheepishness visible in his eyes or his voice and that along with his not very subtle vampire references this morning made her worry that perhaps he discovered the truth about her, which wasn't going to work to her advantage at all. Perhaps she'd have to arrange for him to die before taking Elena to Klaus. What an annoying inconvenience.

"Excuse me?" Stefan asked, perplexed by the request that apart from making Katherine narrow her eyes at Damon also made Giuseppe dart his eyes from Damon to Katherine with a frown on his face.

"Damon was only joking," Elena said in reconciliatory tone, wiggling the knife out of Damon's hand and putting it next to her plate.

Damon gave her a mockingly upset look, so she reached out for a piece of bread, spread some butter over it and with a perfectly serious expression on her face fed it to him.

Squinting and chewing obediently, Damon mimicked her gestures and after preparing a similar sandwich inched it to Elena's face.

Stefan seemed amused by the scene, but Katherine's smile was clearly strained.

"May I serve tea now?" Hazel asked, walking up to the table.

"Do we have vervain tea?" Damon asked and Hazel seemed a little stumped by the question, but before she had a chance to answer it, Damon added, shifting his eyes to Katherine. "It's delicious. You should try it."

Elena blinked rapidly, trying to kick Damon under the table, but he quickly moved his legs and she accidentally kicked Stefan instead, hard enough to make him wince.

Giuseppe cleared his throat, growing irritated by everyone's behavior. He wondered how Damon knew about the vervain? And why he was offering it to Katherine? Wrinkling his forehead in a frown, he started wondering if it was possible he'd missed the obvious. Strangers in town were always bad news. Perhaps he should've been more suspicious from the start.

"Is it?" Katherine asked with an artificial smile, her eyes burning with rage and confusion and Elena was sure it wasn't a good sign the rage seemed decidedly more prominent.

"Vervain tea?" Stefan asked innocently. "I've never heard of it." He wanted to continue this train of thought, but a surprisingly resolute, silencing look from Elena stopped him.

Above all, Elena was impatient for the breakfast to be over, so they could talk to Emily before leaving the house. That and she doubted riling up Katherine was a good idea at all.

"If we are to go, let's go," Elena said, jumping to her feet.

She was feeling a little guilty for leaving Giuseppe alone with Katherine, since Stefan was also going with them, but she hoped that coming up with a way to ruin the wedding ceremony might be a more attractive pastime for Katherine than hurting Giuseppe. Fortunately, Katherine had no way of knowing that Elena couldn't care less for wrong colors and faded flowers during her wedding.

Elena paused in her thoughts, her eyelashes fluttering briefly at the sudden memory of the empty wedding hall, so beautiful and bright, decorated with flowers and ribbons, such a perfect setting for what was to become one of her precious memories, that moment when Damon had told her he was going to take the cure. For them.

"Elena, you haven't eaten almost anything," Damon said and Elena stifled a smile at the sincere concern in his voice.

"We have to go," Elena insisted, doubting that skipping one meal could hurt the baby. "I know you're a smothering type, but now it's not the time for this to get even worse," she said, grabbing his hand.

"What? Me? Smothering type?" Damon protested.

"I can make you a sandwich," Stefan offered and wasn't sure why Elena seemed amused by his offer.

"Great idea, sandwich master. You do that," Damon said, tapping Stefan on the shoulder on his way around the table. "We'll meet you outside," he added, heading for the door with Elena's hand clasped in his.

"We didn't ask for the permission to leave the table," Elena whispered to Damon, suddenly realizing that she didn't even glance at Giuseppe after rising to her feet, but Damon brushed off her concerns and headed out of the dining room. "I think we should've-"

Elena wanted to continue, but as soon as the door to the dining room closed behind them, she found herself trapped against the wall, Damon's lips crashing onto hers.

"Even if we'd have all the time in the world I would never be choosing politeness over this," he whispered against Elena's lips, cupping her cheek in his hand. "Now let's go talk to Vintage Bonnie."

With a faint smile, Elena wrapped her arms around him and hugged him.

xxxdelenaxxx

"You're going to Seattle? Why?" Jeremy asked with a weak smile, trying not to get his hopes up too high because of the mere fact that Sarah was calling him.

There could be many reasons for that, her courteous promise to do so as plausible as the hopeful thought that maybe she missed him as much as he missed her.

Everyone had given him odd looks when he'd rushed out of the room, clutching his phone in his hand as if that was the most important thing in the world right now and not the shocking news that Rebekah had just shared with them. But it was an impulse. When he'd seen the caller's ID, all of a sudden, the only thought in his head was that he wanted to hear Sarah's voice.

"I don't know. I wanted to go somewhere far, somewhere I've never been before. But now that we're half-way through... It's been a good road trip so far. And I know it's only been a couple of days but I feel like I got to know my parents really well."

"That's great."

"Yeah, but... I-"

Jeremy held his breath.

"I'm calling because I need to tell you something. I don't want you to think I did it because I don't trust you. I was just worried that something may come up and if someone would decide to kill him, then my parents would die to."

"Kill whom?" Jeremy asked with a baffled frown, surprised by the turn their conversation seemed to take. "Sarah, what are you talking about?"

Sarah was silent for a few seconds. The way she drew her breath reminded Jeremy of those moments during their vampire hunters' training when she'd be so focused on the task, look so calm and collected that only those occasional intakes of breath would let him know she was nervous.

"I'm the one who stole Kai's body."

Jeremy's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "What? Stole... Kai's body? Why? When?" Jeremy interrupted himself, rubbing his eyes and trying to understand what Sarah was saying.

"You didn't even notice his body was gone?" Sarah asked a little stunned, struck by the thought, a hint of amusement lighting up her otherwise grim voice.

Jeremy snorted humorlessly. "I don't think anyone felt like checking up on Kai's body lately. After we threw him into a cellar, we assumed the subject was closed."

"After everything you've been through, it's amazing your peace of mind can override expecting all kinds of unpleasant surprises around every corner," Sarah said with a trace of disbelief in her voice and then waited for Jeremy's reply, but he said nothing for a few seconds. "Jeremy?"

"I was just thinking that my sister thought me that. Always hope for the best, not expect the worst. I guess it stuck with me through all these years, through all the deaths and other disasters."

Leaning against the wall Jeremy was certain he could hear Sarah smile.

"That's the best thing, really," she said softly. "The best course of action, the only one that always makes sense."

"Are you coming back?" Jeremy suddenly asked and Sarah fell silent.

"I'm calling because I wanted to tell you what happened and why I did it."

"But you're not coming back."

"I didn't say that," Sarah said, but not immediately enough.

Jeremy squeezed his eyes shut, trying to shake off the disappointment. "Just be careful. I'll let you know if something happens that could make Kai wake up."

"What?" Sarah exclaimed, her attention diverted from the previous thought. "What do you mean wake up?"

"If all magic was gone, I guess that'd also mean that Kai would wake up. But don't worry," Jeremy continued before Sarah had a chance to ask what he meant by mentioning the possibility of all magic being gone. "Even if he does wake up, he'll wake up as a human with no magic, so all you'll need to is punch him in the face the way you punched me during our first boxing drill."

Sarah smiled.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Stefan." Liz welcomed him with a smile, taking a step away from the door to let him in.

"Is Klaus here?" Stefan asked after returning Liz' greeting, the question adding a hint of awkwardness to both of their smiles.

Liz sighed and gestured toward the kitchen.

"Ah. Stefan! I'm getting a vague sense of déjà vu," Klaus said with a smirk, glancing at Freya and Caroline when Stefan entered the kitchen, hands in his pockets and a frown on his face.

"Bonnie already called and I _was_ going to tell you what was going on," Caroline said, rising to her feet with a defensive grimace.

Stefan watched her walk to the fridge and wasn't sure why her just casually getting skim milk out of it seemed like the strangest sight to him right now.

Then again maybe it was just him always having a hard time getting used to life twists. Although he was quite certain that it also must've taken Liz some time to process the sight of Klaus eating breakfast in her kitchen.

"Before or after Damon would die?" Stefan deadpanned.

Caroline huffed in exasperation. "They didn't even come back yet!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air after placing the milk at the table.

"A loop spell," Freya interjected to change the angle of the conversation a little. "I've only ever heard of it. It's pretty impressive that professor managed to spot it. If he goes back to teaching, I may sign up for his class."

"Someone's definitely not feeling like the weight of the world is crushing down on him," Rebekah said with a sigh, appearing in the doorway and scanning the table with a smile.

"Are you following me?" Stefan asked with an exaggerated grimace, glancing at her over his shoulder.

"Boo!" Rebekah whispered, widening her eyes at him and then grinning when Stefan returned her smile, if only with his eyes.

"Rebekah! I see this is a very thorough family reunion," Klaus said, reaching for a muffin. "Should I thank Elijah for that? Although I can't help but notice that you all seem able to immediately gather in one place only when a chance for a mutiny presents itself."

"You never disappoint when it comes to being dramatic. Or high-and-mighty for that matter," Rebekah scoffed, stepping to stand next to Stefan. "Hello Freya," she added, giving her sister a genuinely happy smile that she returned.

"And I can't help but notice I didn't get a smile," Klaus observed matter-of-factly, his eyes shifting between peanut butter and jam.

"I didn't come here to be smiling at you, Nik," Rebekah said wryly.

Klaus smiled. "I know. You came here as a devil's advocate," he said, glancing up at Stefan.

"You're the only devil in this house and I don't think anyone even wants to be your advocate," Rebekah retorted. "Maybe it's time to capitulate."

Subconsciously, Stefan's gaze shifted to Caroline.

She huffed in indignation. "For the record, I think that _tabula rasa_ spell is a great idea! I already told him so!" She pointed to Klaus who seemed very amused by the entire conversation.

Without saying a word, Stefan shrugged, as if signaling he never meant to suggest he believed otherwise.

"Hope may come down any minute, so you might want to keep your voices down," Liz cut in, crossing the kitchen with a half-scolding, half-amused expression on her face that made Stefan feel more secure in his belief that Klaus could be persuaded to go along with their plan.

Something in Liz' demeanor made it seem as if she wasn't worried about the outcome to all this at all. She gave him a reassuring smile before leaving the kitchen.

"Stefan, just so you know, I don't feel like going to Tennessee this year," Klaus said conversationally in a low voice, giving Stefan an apologetic grimace and then chuckling under his breath while spreading peanut butter over his sandwich.

"I'm glad that after all these years the fact that you ruined my life still serves as a source of amusement to you," Stefan said with an artificially strained smile.

Klaus shook his head, stifling a laugh. "And you say I'm being dramatic!" He turned his head to look at Rebekah before shifting his eyes back to Stefan. "I thought we were all past that," he said with a wave of his hand. "After all, everyone ended up happy. Damon's got Elena, you've got... well, a few epistolary friends, I'm sure."

"You're not funny, Nik," Rebekah said with a sigh, crossing her arms over her chest.

"To be fair, he kind of is, but that's beside the point," Stefan said dismissively, causing Freya and Caroline to exchange stifled smiles.

Klaus narrowed his eyes at Stefan and after a moment of consideration put his sandwich down on his plate. "I just wish you listened to my side of things instead of only paying attention to my brother's idealistic reveries!"

"Your side of things," Rebekah echoed mockingly, "is just a paranoid conviction that becoming human will mark your downfall!"

"Our downfall, my dear Rebekah," Klaus interrupted, raising his hands in an impatient gesture. "It amazes me that Elijah's conscientious vision has somehow made you all blind to the simplest fact that me being defenseless will be a disadvantage to all of you."

Rebekah snorted out loud. "Of course! Because all you've been doing your whole life is saving the day and rushing to our rescue all the time. I feel so terrible for having obviously missed the moment when you became an on-call savior! Could you please enlighten me when did that happen?"

"He did help out a couple of times," Stefan allowed noncommittally and Caroline sat down and focused on drinking her coffee to keep herself from laughing.

Wordlessly, Klaus pointed to Stefan with a triumphant expression on his face.

"Would you like a cup of coffee?" Freya asked, looking between Rebekah and Stefan.

"I don't think coffee is enough to make me endure this conversation!" Rebekah said, shooting Klaus an impatient glare and then directing a genuine smile at Freya. "But I'll give it a shot. Thank you." She pulled out a chair for herself and sat down at the table across from Klaus.

"Here's a thought," Klaus said cheerfully after a moment of silence. "Why don't we go back to this conversation once Damon and Elena will actually return? Chances are, they never will."

"How thoughtful of you to point that out," Freya said, shaking her head in wry amusement.

"Damon was already dying when they left," Stefan replied in a voice immediately devoid of amusement, his eyebrows furrowed. "That's why they left so abruptly. When they come back, with Kai's curse in place, Damon won't have more than a few minutes. There won't be time for any conversations."

"In an effort to offer you a piece of advice," Klaus spoke in a concerned tone, "when did saving your brother ever do you any good? Maybe you should reconsider always rushing to his aid, no matter the cost."

"That is a terrific advice," Rebekah said. "I think I'm going to go ahead and apply it to myself. I probably should have, the first time you daggered me."

Klaus rolled his eyes.

"Stop trying to make it about Damon," Rebekah continued, giving Klaus a stern look. "What are you going to tell Hope? That you had a chance to free her mother from the curse, but decided against it for the fear of lost authority?"

Klaus tapped his fingers against the table, staring off into the distance with an irritated frown.

Rebekah glanced at Stefan who joined her at the table, leaning on his elbows and catching Klaus' gaze.

"We're not blackmailing or threatening you. I'm asking you as a friend-"

"A friend! So now we're friends! The last time I said that you never said it back!" Klaus proclaimed.

Caroline's head snapped up and she stifled a groan. "What are you, five? I mean, _four_. Because Hope's five and I've never seen her acting that childish!"

"Aunt Rebekah!" As if she heard her name being spoken, Hope ran into the kitchen and straight to Rebekah, climbing onto her lap and wrapping her arms around her neck. "I didn't know you were coming! I don't have a picture for you!" Hope said sadly, leaning back to show the pictures she was holding in her hand to Rebekah.

"That's OK, sweetheart," Rebekah said with a laugh, watching Hope smoothing out the corners that had gotten folded during the hug as she was splaying the pictures over the table.

"This one is for Daddy, this one for Mommy, Aunt Freya, Uncle Elijah, Grandma Liz, Damon and Elena-"

"They are all lovely! You've been busy," Rebekah said with a smile, reaching out for one of the pictures. "I especially like the one for your mom," she said, lifting the picture Hope had drawn for Hayley and giving Klaus a pointed look from above the sheet of paper.

Rolling his eyes, Klaus leaned back in his chair.

"Did you make one for Stefan?" Rebekah asked, scrutinizing the collection on the table and giving Hope a questioning look.

Hope shifted her eyes between the pictures and Stefan, momentarily perturbed by the question, but she quickly regained her composure and grabbed one of the pictures off the table to hand it to Stefan.

She looked at it sadly, pouting a little and then said in a matter-of-fact, reasonable tone. "He can have Damon and Elena's one, since they're not here."

Stefan thanked Hope and looked at the picture with a sigh. "Guess that's my cue to get a life."

To Hope's puzzlement, everyone laughed.

xxxdelenaxxx

"We can't assume she's lying. And even if she is, it's probably because she's scared. Or maybe she just has a hard time believing the time-travel story," Elena said with a weak smile. "Either way, we just have to find a way to get her to trust us."

"We kind of saved her life. If that can't make her trust us, I don't know what could," Damon snapped with a frown.

"Katherine saved her life once too. And yesterday she was trying to get her killed. She has every reason to be cautious. And we're not in that great of a hurry."

"Of course we are in a hurry, Elena! Anything can happen at any given moment. Besides, everything that we do here can potentially change the future and that's not a good idea. We aren't supposed to be doing that. But since I've... merged with myself," Damon said with a mirthless grimace, "it's not possible not to mess something up, eventually."

Stefan rubbed his forehead in a nervous gesture, his confusion growing with every second, his eyes darting between Damon and Elena as he was trying to keep up with them, which proved difficult but possible in terms of their fast-paced walking, but in terms of what they were talking about, he felt completely lost.

"What were you and Emily talking about?" Stefan asked, taking advantage of a moment of silence.

He'd been waiting for Damon and Elena outside the house for a longer while, but since they weren't there, he'd gone searching for them and had found them in the garden talking to Emily. He hadn't heard a word of their conversation, had just seen Emily end it, leaving Damon and Elena to stare after her with very distressed expressions on their faces.

Wincing, Damon stifled a groan. "Stefan, this is not a good time for random questions."

"How is this a random question?" Stefan inquired with a frown. He couldn't quite pinpoint what it was, but there was something different about his brother's tone, something that all of a sudden made his every word sound as if it was indeed a word uttered by an older brother.

Damon stopped abruptly in his tracks and turned around to face Stefan. "Fine."

Stefan looked to Elena to make sure that Damon was still not acting strange. He didn't trust his own judgment of that anymore, but he figured that as long as Elena didn't look anxious or horrified, everything was alright.

"Damon." Elena closed one of Damon's hands in hers and propped her chin on his arm, giving him a meaningful look, so he wouldn't say anything unnecessary.

"You want to know what's happening?" Damon said, seemingly ignoring Elena's unspoken suggestion to calm down or lower his voice or preferably both. "There you go. We are not us." Stefan blinked. "I mean, we are us, but we are us from the future," Damon clarified with a faint, lop-sided smile.

Stefan stared at Damon for a few seconds in silence, before his eyes almost involuntarily shifted to Elena.

"Stop looking at Elena!" Damon exclaimed with an impatient grimace. "She'll tell you the same thing! We're not crazy. We just... traveled back in time and now we have to figure out a way to go back to the future," he concluded with a grim sigh.

The necessity to decipher Damon's last sentence caused Stefan to seemingly shake himself out of his reverie and blink rapidly. "Back to the future?" He muttered at last, not sure where to start verifying the bizarre things he was hearing, although he couldn't deny that as strange as this explanation sounded, it felt true if he was to just go by expressions on Damon and Elena's faces.

"We didn't remember it at first, but yesterday we got our memories back and now," Elena grimaced, "now we have to find a way to go back, because-" She drew a breath.

"Because we have to go back," Damon brusquely cut in. "And you're not going to get more details if you don't wipe that look of utter befuddlement off your face."

"Damon, it's not his fault he can't wrap his mind around all this right away," Elena said in a hushed voice, tugging on Damon's hand.

He tugged on hers in turn and Elena stifled an exasperated sigh, but then smiled faintly when Damon caught her off guard by pressing a quick, light kiss to her lips.

"I know."

"How long has it been?" Stefan asked, regaining his composure and trying to appear unfazed as requested, although his mind was reeling. "How many years back did you travel?" Stefan rephrased his question, not sure how to ask it, so it wouldn't sound bizarre, which probably wasn't possible.

He thought that the only way to break on through his confusion was to get a few facts straight.

"Five? Ten?" Stefan offered helpfully since Damon and Elena exchanged a look, but didn't answer his question. Stefan's eyes widened at the sudden idea. "Twenty?"

It didn't seem like a plausible possibility, but he couldn't imagine a different reason for their problem with answering the question other than the fact that they had traveled from a very distant future.

Damon narrowed his eyes at Stefan, briefly entertaining the thought of asking Stefan which one of them looked more forty to him, but then he wasn't exactly in the teasing mood, so he decided to just tell him the truth.

For a few moments Stefan's eyes shifted between Damon and Elena and then suddenly his frown disappeared and he chortled. Damon and Elena looked at each other without turning their heads much.

"And I almost started believing in all this!" Stefan shook his head with another laugh that started fading off his face when he noticed that neither Damon nor Elena looked amused.

"You are not joking?" Stefan said at last, paling a little.

Biting her lip, Elena lightly shook her head.

"But..." Stefan trailed off with a grimace, trying to understand. "How could you be alive two hundred years from now?"

"I have a less complicated question," Damon said, squinting. "Today we have to invite everyone to the wedding, go to the seamstress, locate the Council's secret library and possibly break into it toward the end of the day. Pick the activity you want to help us with."

"Not until you tell me everything!" Stefan exclaimed, catching both Damon and Elena off guard.

"Breaking into the library it is," Damon decided, ignoring Stefan's outburst. He took Elena's hand in his and started walking briskly again.

Stefan turned to follow them. "Why can't you just-"

"Because it's complicated, Stefan!" Damon replied, turning to him so abruptly that the movement made Stefan jolt. "For the lack of a better word," Damon muttered with a frown.

"I'm sure it is," Stefan allowed, regarding Damon and Elena with a thoughtful, worried gaze. "Tell me at least why you came here in the first place?"

Damon's mouth twitched. "You know what?" He said, glancing at Elena for support. "On the second thought, let's talk about these upcoming two hundred years. Do you want to start with how you and I became vampires, how dad killed us, how you killed dad, the list of your victims also known as the Chicago Closet List or how you joined the high school baseball team? Although that last one is toward the end of the story, so if you want to do this chronologically-

"Damon!"

Damon turned his eyes to Elena, seemingly surprised by the horrified tone of her voice. Wincing, Elena looked at Stefan whom Damon's words rendered wide-eyed and completely speechless.

"I think I would best like to do the wedding invitations," Stefan mumbled, turning around and walking off.

Elena gave Damon a scolding look. He shrugged.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Are you sure you want to give them that much time? If he didn't make up his mind already, I don't think he will. Whoever came up with the superfluous idea of asking for his opinion?" Enzo slumped down onto the couch with a grimace, half-expecting Bonnie to lash out at him, but this time she seemed not to have noticed he was invading her personal space.

"His siblings," Bonnie replied gruffly, to Enzo's amazement accepting a glass of wine from his hand. "Can't blame them. It doesn't matter anyway. If he won't make or change his mind by tomorrow, I'm going to tell Hope that her dad's going to bring back her mom, Damon and Elena. Let's see how he deals with that," Bonnie said with a hint of cold determination in her voice, slightly thrusting up her chin.

Enzo chuckled wryly. "One hell of a devious plan, unless everyone overestimates how much he cares for his daughter. If he really cared, he would've decided to go along with his brother's idea already."

"Says the man who is physically unable to care. How is your curse, by the way?" Bonnie asked, nearing the glass to her lips, but then putting it away with a grimace. "I hate red wine."

"Noted." Enzo leaned his head against the back of the couch. "I don't know. It's not like anyone tried to test it lately."

"I'm glad you said 'lately', otherwise I might've started feeling sorry for you and give it a shot," Bonnie said flatly, curling up her feet underneath her, her eyes fixed straight ahead.

Enzo turned his head to look at her, a smirk playing about his lips. "Feel free. I just added 'lately' for the melody of the sentence."

Bonnie gave him a no-nonsense look, but then turned toward him more and Enzo's eyes widened a little, but Bonnie simply propped her head on her elbow and looked past him at the fireplace with a determined expression on her face.

"We can't risk Damon and Elena getting hurt because of Klaus." Bonnie's eyes shifted to Enzo. "You get that, right?"

Mirroring Bonnie's movements Enzo gave her a smile. "If you're looking for a partner in crime, look no further."

"I hope no crime will be necessary, but just in case Caroline's wrong..." Bonnie trailed off with a frown.

"She's certain he'll do it?"

"It's hard to tell. Everything Caroline's says sounds like she's certain of it, except that most of the time it's just the tone of her voice."

Enzo chuckled soundlessly and Bonnie looked like she might smile, but then only the frown on her face deepened.

"Everything is going to be fine," Enzo said, on an impulse reaching out and squeezing Bonnie's hand in a reassuring gesture.

She shifted her hand, as if her first thought was to snatch it free, but on the second thought she stopped herself and just gave Enzo a pensive look.

"How do you know?" She asked in a low voice.

"Because in the end, everything always turns out fine around here," he said with a shrug, removing his hand and Bonnie was somehow shocked to realize that she'd liked the way he'd held it for those few seconds.

Then again, maybe it was just the warmth that she missed. The sense of closeness. She'd fallen into that trap before and she wasn't going to make the same mistake the second time. There must be more to love than just the absence of loneliness.

"All the magic will go away," Enzo continued, hoping to brighten the mood. He'd been feeling gloomy ever since they'd discovered that Damon's and Elena's baby might die, but the latest developments had ignited hope and on top of that, there was something about Bonnie that always made him want to make her smile. "Damon and Elena will come back and we'll be dancing on their wedding as the maid-of-honor and the best man."

Bonnie raised her eyebrow at him. "And how did you figure you'd be asked to be the best man?"

"I'm the only viable candidate."

"Really?"

Enzo nodded and Bonnie tried not to smile, even though his words brought a ray of light into her thoughts. Imagining their lives just being ordinary one day was the happiest thought, but so difficult to grasp and yet he made it sound as if it was really possible.

"Stefan would be awkward, the dude who erased Elena's memories is out of the question, Desmond seems nice, but parents are kind of a separate category. Pairing you up with your ex-boyfriend would be weird," Enzo trailed off for a second to take in Bonnie's reaction and when she didn't protest his word choice, he concluded. "So any way you look, I have no competition."

"Right. Not to rain on your parade, but what if Damon and Elena get married before they come back? Then there will be no wedding."

Enzo chuckled. "I'd like to see Caroline letting them get away with not having her as their wedding planner. She's easily going to make them get married again if need be."

That finally made Bonnie smile.

xxxdelenaxxx

After making sure Stefan drank one full glass of vervained water that should hopefully keep him safe until morning, Damon headed back to his room where Elena was waiting.

He wished the circumstances were different, so they could enjoy the hilarity of all this sneaking out, the delight of their upcoming wedding. But the way things were now, there were more reasons to worry than to rejoice and today was a rather spectacular failure.

Not only Emily hadn't provided them with a solution, but the conversation with Winston Forbes had also led nowhere as he'd proved more secretive than Damon had expected him to be. Of course, he didn't doubt that discovering the location of the Council's secret library was only a matter of time, but he was much less certain whether that would actually help. He was trying to reassure Elena that it would, but he wasn't quite succeeding at reassuring himself. What were the chances that they would find such a rare and somewhat futuristic kind of spell in the 19th century Mystic Falls collection? He was beginning to wonder if wasting time on that kind of research made any sense. Perhaps they should proceed right away to finding a knowledgeable witch. New Orleans was already thriving and as of yet he didn't make any enemies among witches or among anyone, really, so perhaps traveling to New Orleans to seek help was the best course of action.

Damon stopped in his tracks at the sound of his name being spoken in a clear, flat voice and after looking around the corridor with wary eyes he blinked, spotting Emily by the balcony door.

She held his gaze, as if to make sure he'd noticed her and then disappeared behind the curtains.

Not sure what to expect, Damon crossed the hallway and followed Emily onto the balcony. The cool, night air hit him as soon as he stepped outside, Emily's silhouette looking more like a shadow against the dark gray, starless sky.

"Why did you come here?" Emily asked, staring into the night, her hands propped on the rail. He didn't immediately answer, so she turned to look at him. "You told me you traveled back in time, but you didn't tell me why."

With a grimace, Damon absently ran his hand across the rail, his eyes scanning the dark garden below. Reluctantly, he told Emily about Kai's curse and explained why they'd left.

"So when you go back, you are going to die," Emily concluded, regarding him carefully, the indifferent tone of her voice making it difficult to tell what she was thinking.

"Probably," Damon said dismissively. "Look. I know you may not feel that you have enough reasons to trust us, but if you know anything or anyone who could help, I'll do anything-"

"Tomorrow, after the wedding, when the sun goes down, I will meet Elena and you by the river, in the place where you arrived."

Damon stopped abruptly in mid-sentence, the flatness of Emily's voice almost making him doubt the meaning of her words.

Damon nodded, looking at her with increased intensity, his eyes burning with hope. "But you said that you couldn't help us," he said carefully, a trace of confusion in his voice.

"I said I couldn't send you back to the future. I never said I didn't want to help you," Emily corrected. "Meet me tomorrow," she said, ignoring Damon's attempts to press for some details. "And if everything goes well, tomorrow night you will be back home."

xxxdelenaxxx

Jenna closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening the door and walking into the room where Alaric was waiting for her.

Between Shane dissecting the workings of the loop spell for everyone, Jeremy announcing that Sarah had taken temporary custody of Kai's body and her sister needing her support, Jenna kept postponing talking to Alaric. There was also the strange fact that she was as impatient to talk to him alone as she was scared. For her the moment they'd last seen each other felt like yesterday. For him it must've felt like a very distant past.

"I've never seen Miranda that anxious. I didn't want to leave her-" Jenna started explaining right away, but Alaric interrupted her with a soft smile.

"I understand," he said, rising to his feet and taking a step toward her and Jenna wasn't sure if it were the evening shadows, but he seemed taller than she remembered, his voice sounded a bit differently and she started feeling like it had really been years since they'd talked last.

"Have you been seating here alone for long?" Jenna asked, trying to keep her voice steady and casual.

A glimpse of dejected smile flickered in Alaric's eyes. "I've been quite alone for the last few years. Got used to it."

Jenna wanted to ask about his great escape to the north, but the melancholy in his eyes doused the spark of her sense of humor, so when he stepped even closer she spoke in a low, sincerely compassionate voice.

"I'm so sorry about what happened to your family. That's horrible. I don't even know what to say," she added with a grimace.

"You said all that there's to be said," Alaric replied under his breath, a brief, bittersweet smile flitting across his face.

Jenna took a few steps to meet him half-way across the room and then when they were at last standing face to face, in close proximity to each other, something strange happened. All of a sudden his voice sounded like his voice again, his gaze as reassuring as she remembered.

"I wish I could say I missed you, but I didn't," Jenna said after taking a sharp intake of breath and just deciding to try putting her thoughts into words. "I didn't have time to miss you. To me it feels like nothing has changed, but I know we can't pick up where we left off."

"Would you want that?" Alaric asked and Jenna blinked, caught off guard by the question. "I'm not sure I'm still the person you remember. I feel like over the years the list of things I regret is much, much longer than the list of things I'm proud of."

"Yeah, I heard about you messing with Elena's memories. Enzo drilled us on that one _really_ well."

"I'm sure he did," Alaric said with a wry snort. "But I'm not just talking about that," he added grimly.

"I know," Jenna acknowledged, wishing that she could just wrap her arms around him and hug him, but their time apart like an invisible barrier was stopping her from doing it right away. "But it's never too late to get over one's regrets or start making better choices. Or both."

Alaric looked at her for a longer while in silence and Jenna started fearing that he was putting together a polite break-up speech, but then he caught her off guard once again.

"I never stopped loving you, Jenna. I would've never left you. If you didn't die, we would've never spent a day apart, I'm sure of it. I have changed and my life has, but what we had? That didn't change at all. So if you want to try picking up where we left off... I want to try to."

xxxdelenaxxx

"I was beginning to worry!" Elena said in a hushed voice, rushing to Damon when he walked into the room and closed the door behind him.

Damon gave her a faint, reassuring smile before closing his arms around her in a tight hug as soon as she fell into his arms. He closed his eyes, reveling in their closeness. Maybe that's what death could be like? Maybe when he died, he could be holding onto a single thought, image, memory? One moment stretching into the eternity, like a glimpse of ever-burning light in the pitch dark stillness of an endless night?

There would be no reason to be afraid to die if death could be a neverending contemplation of Elena Gilbert.

"Damon?"

Reluctantly, Damon lifted his head from where it was buried in Elena's neck and gave her a small smile. "I love you, Elena," he said in a warm whisper, cradling her face in his hands.

Elena frowned, feeling her heart clench both at the words and at the gloomy thought that hearing these words now was making her feel scared instead of happy, because of the hint of acute sadness in Damon's voice.

"I love you too," Elena said quietly, mirroring his gesture, looking at him expectantly, because she was sure something must have just happened to make him look at her in such a heartbreakingly rueful way.

"I talked to Emily," Damon spoke in a low, calming voice. "Tomorrow night we're going back home." He smiled reassuringly, holding her gaze.

Elena's eyes widened in surprise and Damon tried to come up with a perfect expression to describe the color of her eyes, but to no avail. There were no words beautiful enough to describe it.

"Tomorrow? But how? Did you talk to her just now? But in the morning she said-"

Damon interrupted the string of Elena's feverish questions explaining that he didn't get many answers out of Emily, just a promise that tomorrow she'd help them go home.

Elena's hands closed around his shoulders. "Tomorrow," she repeated in a hollow voice, returning Damon's smile, feeling relieved at the thought that by tomorrow their baby might be safe, but at the same time twinges of wintry pain spread across her chest. "But... we still have time. We can go back home later," she said in rushed whisper, her teeth chattering a little as she spoke, her grip on Damon's shoulders tightening.

Damon's forehead wrinkled as he regarded Elena carefully, quickly guessing the reason behind her reaction.

"First of all, we don't know for sure if whatever Emily has in mind will work. She was being very cryptic about the whole thing, so the sooner we check if this will really work the better. We can't wait until the last moment, because then it will be too late to search for other solutions."

Biting her lip, Elena nodded as matter-of-factly as possible, but then she burst into tears and locked her arms around Damon's neck in a adamant embrace. He pressed her to him so hard they both could barely breathe.

"I can't lose you," she whispered, burying her face in Damon's neck to stifle a heart-splitting sob when his only reply was the warmth of his hands on her back.

She lost count of how many times they were repeating these words to each other and she wondered if she subconsciously didn't feel like there was some magic enclosed in them, as if saying that she couldn't lose him had to, absolutely had to prevent just that from happening.

"I'll always love you, Elena," Damon said with his cheek pressed to the top of Elena's head. "I'll always be with you. Every breath you take will be mine. Every time you smile, I'll be smiling with you. I'll not die, Elena." He drew back to cup her face in his hands and Elena tried to blink back the tears flooding her eyes to see his face more clearly. "I'll just become that love that I feel for you. It will always be everywhere around you, anywhere you go, keeping you safe."

Damon grimaced when this only made Elena cry more violently. With a soundless moan Elena pressed her mouth against his and kissed him, the salty taste of tears burning their lips as they kissed, each kiss like a flame, fiery and warm, sending ringlets of heat through them.

Elena's hand slid under Damon's shirt so roughly that she ripped the fabric open, Damon's head hitting the door when she started plastering sizzling kisses to his chest.

They stumbled toward the bed, kissing madly, Elena's nightdress tossed to the side with such force that it knocked a few books off the nightstand.

"I like our life when it is like this. A wedding night before the wedding," Damon whispered against Elena's mouth before kissing her again, his hands caressing her skin, tenderly, deliberately.

Elena smiled brokenly at his words, cradling his face in her hands when they sat up on the bed after removing the last piece of clothing separating them.

She grazed his skin with her fingertips, trying to concentrate on the texture of his skin, but shuddering inwardly at the excruciatingly painful thought that it might be their last night together. No amount of goodbyes could possibly make it easier. It seemed to hurt more every time. They'd overcome so many obstacles, survived so many storms and yet somehow it still wasn't enough to earn them an ordinary life that they'd cherish until their last breath. If only they could take it together.

Elena's head fell into the pillows, the weight of Damon's body pressing against her, his lips trailing open-mouthed, torrid kisses across the skin of her neck, her shoulders, her collarbones. Draping her leg over his, Elena pulled his lips to hers, exploring every crevice of his mouth, their moans muffled by the sounds of the wind, strong gusts throwing the curtains to the sides, causing the glass windows to rattle.

Digging her fingernails into Damon's back, Elena smiled against his lips when he kissed her slowly, dragging his lips across her face, across her eyelids, each kiss more tender, warmer, his hands kneading her soft skin, grazing it with gentle earnestness that made her scream in her head, her teeth sinking into his shoulder when he nuzzled her neck without changing the frenzied pace at which they were moving together.

"Elena..." Damon's forehead fell against hers and they looked at each other, their vision obscured by the heat and tears, their heartbeats reverberating in their ears. "I want you to get everything you're looking for," he whispered huskily, brushing the strands of hair off her cheek.

"I already did." Elena's voice broke and she grimaced, her hands moving from Damon's shoulders to his face and she tried to smile through her tears before pressing a lingering kiss to his lips. "I've got you."

xxxdelenaxxx

Caroline woke up with a start at the sound of her door being pushed open and someone screaming her name.

She sat up and then rushed outside of her bedroom, her nightdress a flowery blur around her that came to a sudden stop when Hope jumped into her arms in the middle of the hallway.

"My Mom's going to be free of her curse!" Hope informed Caroline with a gleeful smile, hardly able to catch her breath from excitement. "I mean, we're going to try freeing my Mom from the curse," Hope corrected herself in a reasonable tone, as if reminding herself she was supposed to remember about that, but then her smile returned with a double-force. "Uncle Elijah found a spell that can get rid of all the magic!" She waved her hands in the air, clearly impressed. "Not all magic is bad, but we can't erase only bad magic, so we have to erase all of it," Hope said a little sadly, clearly regretting she didn't have a chance to become a real witch. "But if this spell will work, I'll be seeing my Mom every single day!" She exclaimed joyfully in such a shrill voice that it made Caroline's ears hurt, but she couldn't bring herself to care, only smiling happily back at Hope instead. "I'll go tell Grandma Liz about it!" Hope concluded and Caroline placed her back on her feet and watched her run to her mother's room.

When she turned around she saw Klaus leaning against the frame of Hope's room's door, a storybook tucked under his arm. He shrugged.

Caroline looked at him, the smile she was giving Hope brightening even more into the one that reminded Klaus of that night on the empty game field when they'd met after the graduation ceremony.

"What a thing it will be," Caroline said, her eyes sparkling with everything from joy to relief to pride. "To work hard every day just to stay alive."

"Is that a request for a painting of a hummingbird?"

Caroline narrowed her eyes at him, trying to keep her voice haughty. "Actually, I'd prefer a portrait."

Klaus gave her a smile, more happy than smug that lit up his eyes. "I was hoping to hear that one day."


	30. Chapter 30

A/N: Thank you **so much** for your terrific reviews! :):):)

Now as promised...

Good news is that you've all been invited to Damon & Elena's wedding which is happening right here, right now ;) Bad news is... the cliffhanger, I'm afraid. Sorry about that. The awesome news is that we still have 7 chapters to go. (You'll consider it awesome news by the end of this chapter. Just imagine if it was the last! lol) Now as for the news-you-will-just-have-to-deal-with: I have no clue when the next chapter's going to be posted. The reason is that in a couple of weeks I'm moving overseas, so needless to say, from now on I may have even less time to write, especially in the nearest future. I'm counting on your patience :]

Disclaimer: I hope St. Paul will forgive Damon for paraphrasing his letter to the Corinthians ;) Also, a couple of lines come from the Book of Common Prayer.

 **Chapter 30**

" _Dear Brother,_

 _When you were three or four, you used to follow me around everywhere. It was then that it first occurred to me that what I do, who I am may be important to someone._

xxxdelenaxxx

"Damon?" Stefan walked into the room, stopping at the sight of Damon sitting at his desk with a quill in his hand. "It is late. We have to go," he said cautiously, trying to decipher the expression on Damon's face.

Ever since Damon and Elena had told him the incredulous time-travel story Stefan had a feeling they weren't telling him everything and whatever it was that they were keeping to themselves, it was something that was making them both sad.

He couldn't begin to guess what this secret was, but he felt cold shivers crawl up his spine at the realization that it was making him sad too. As if somewhere deep, deep inside he knew what it was.

"Damon?"

Slightly leaning over the desk, Stefan looked down at the page, Damon's hand splayed over an almost empty sheet of ecru paper.

"I don't know what to write," Damon muttered tonelessly.

"If it's a letter to me, you can just tell me," Stefan said with a hint of an encouraging smile in his voice, regarding his brother carefully.

He didn't know if it was Damon's immaculate appearance today, the radiantly white shirt, the lustrous black vest and suit, the perfectly shined black shoes, but Stefan felt as if he was looking at someone who was very far away.

Damon smiled weakly. "No. The letter to you I managed to write rather fast. You'll read it two centuries from now. This one... I don't know what to write to someone..." Damon trailed off, squinting out of the window, the sun rays illuminating the edges of the quill that Damon kept turning absently in his hand.

 _To someone I'll never meet_ , Damon thought, gritting his teeth. Of all the things that should bother him right now, all the things he should be regretting, searching his murky conscience for, this somehow had sneaked up on him as the greatest regret.

"I thought I could say a few impressive things about me, but... there aren't really any impressive things to say," Damon said bitterly, his lips twitching in a brief grimace. "And for once I'd rather say something wise than sarcastic, but it seems I'm just not wise enough."

Stefan's eyes shifted between Damon's face and the empty page, his fingers drumming the air in a nervous gesture. He wanted to ask who was the addressee of the letter, but at the same he couldn't get rid of the nagging conviction that he knew. He wanted to ask why Damon was writing this letter now, but he felt he knew that as well. He drew a soundless, sharp intake of breath, glancing up at the sun, the blinding light impairing his vision for a second.

"Why don't you-" Stefan blinked rapidly, feeling as if the ground was slipping from under his feet, as if something very bad was happening, but how could it?

It was his brother's wedding day. Nothing bad could happen on such a day.

"Why don't you-"

And yet he felt like... like he was losing him.

Damon looked up, searching Stefan's face for the explanation for his voice to suddenly sound as if Stefan had troubles breathing.

Stefan gathered all of his inner strength to regain his composure and give Damon a reassuring smile.

"Why don't you just write what you feel?"

xxxdelenaxxx

 _For a long time I felt like we've lost a lot of time, wasted years and decades, but now it doesn't feel like that anymore. Now all that matters is the time that we did spend together as brothers, the moments when we were there for each other. Good memories are always stronger than the bad ones. You just have to cling to them hard enough._

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena looked at herself in the mirror, adjusting the veil and smoothing out her as hastily as beautifully made wedding dress.

Straightening up, she clenched her jaw, willing herself not to cry. Of course nobody would probably make much of her crying during her wedding, but she just didn't want to cry.

Today was the last perfectly happy day of her life. It would be so wrong to cry.

Gathering fistfuls of her snowy white dress, Elena hurried out of the room and down the stairs.

xxxdelenaxxx

 _It is so strange to realize that we were never really alone. We were choosing to be for so long, secretly knowing that being unhappy is so much easier. It's such a reliable shield, all the grudges that we hold, actions and words that hurt us. Feeling unloved. How miserable. How safe! Lying down at night, with your eyes wide open, seeing only the darkness closing in on you. The suffering caused by being loved by no one is nothing compared to the suffering caused by loving someone more than anything in the world. Yet this is the pain I wouldn't trade for anything. This pain is life. This pain is me. We aren't alive until we open ourselves to the pain of loving someone so much that parting with them burns us inside out._

xxxdelenaxxx

Giuseppe looked around the gathering, all the invited guests waiting in silence for the bride and the groom, the silhouette of the carriage already visible in the distance. He looked at Stefan who was standing with his eyes cast to the ground, his face pale and Giuseppe wished he was standing closer to him, so he could tap him on the shoulder to remind him to stand straight. Slouching during the ceremony was not an acceptable posture.

After staring at Stefan intently for a longer while, Giuseppe gave up on the hope that he'd at last attract his attention, so he resumed scrutinizing the people surrounding them. The bride's sister was sitting in the first row, elegant and aloof, but he hoped that she wouldn't cause trouble, at least not during the ceremony. He'd deal with her later. Damon's remarks had alarmed him and he'd have to talk to other Council's members about that. And perhaps talk to Damon first to find out what he knew or suspected.

The carriage came to a halt behind the rows of chairs decorated with delicate, pale flowers that Giuseppe had asked Melanie Forbes to pick after Katherine had announced with a gasp that she'd forgotten about flowers altogether. Giuseppe was convinced it was a retribution, perhaps not even a very unreasonable one, for Damon and Elena choosing Stefan and Emily as their witnesses, which had everyone stumped, to say the least, but there was no time to argue, especially that Giuseppe thought that it could actually validate the earlier commotion with defending Emily, if in a rather haphazard way.

The clergyman smiled, tilting up his head to watch along with all other guests Damon and Elena walk down the aisle together.

xxxdelenaxxx

 _I remember many times when the thought that you were alright, well, that you weren't dead was enough to make me endure the worst._

 _In that Augustine cell, it wasn't a thought of revenge that kept me alive. It was the thought that it wasn't happening to you._

xxxdelenaxxx

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation, to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony."

Elena sank her fingernails into the the prayer book and the lace handkerchief she was holding in her hands, her vision becoming blurred very quickly She was only able to keep her tears at bay for so long.

Damon winked at her and she tried to smile, but her smile turned into a grimace that sent more tears rushing down her face.

Stefan's forehead wrinkled in a disapproving frown when he noticed Katherine roll her eyes. It was strange, since Elena and Katherine looked so alike, but all of a sudden Stefan thought Katherine wasn't as beautiful as he'd thought before.

Giuseppe glanced up at the sky to make sure it wasn't going to rain. He always thought weddings inside the church were more practical, but if Elena and Damon wanted for the ceremony to happen outside, and if according to the minister God didn't mind, then he wasn't going to stand in their way either.

"Will you have this woman-" The minister started to speak in a ceremonious manner and was a little startled when Damon interrupted him.

"I take you, Elena, as my wedded wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony."

Elena's eyes lit up and she smiled through her tears.

The minister smiled approvingly at Damon having apparently the vows memorized, but then his forehead wrinkled in slight confusion when Damon continued, but not exactly in the way the minister expected him to.

"I love you, Elena. I will always love you. You are the best thing that ever happened to me. You are patient, you are kind. You do not envy, you do not boast, you are not proud. You are not rude, you are not self-seeking, you are not easily angered, you keep no record of wrongs." Damon reached out for Elena's hands and squeezed them tight in his, his eyes ablaze, his voice quiet but ardent, his smile trying to give Elena the strength not to cry, but soon she burst into tears again, at that point completely oblivious to everything and everyone around them.

In that moment it was just the two of them.

Elena bit her lip, stifling a sob. This couldn't be the end. It couldn't.

"You do not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth," Damon continued, keeping his voice steady despite the world spinning around him. "You always protect, always trust, always hope, always persevere." He paused and whispered, his voice as tender as his smile. "You never fail."

The minister looked between Damon and Elena, listening to the vows in silence. Perhaps the words weren't in keeping with the tradition, but the meaning certainly was.

"Elena, I want you to get everything you want from life," Damon spoke, leaning toward Elena who was shaking from crying, tears dripping onto their interlaced hands, their fingers pale from how hard they were holding onto each other. "I want you to wake up every day with light in your eyes. I was wrong when I said I'd love you until I take my last breath on this earth." Damon smiled. "I will love you even after that, for all eternity."

Stefan was standing motionlessly, watching the ceremony with a frown on his face, flooded by the kind of anxiety he couldn't name. Something was happening, something was going to happen, something he didn't want to happen. Perhaps it was just the fact that they wanted to go back to the future? He was going to lose them, but they weren't going to die.

Still, somehow the words, as soothing as he was trying to make them sound, weren't making Stefan feel better at all. What if their trip back wouldn't work? Time-travel was such an impossible concept to him that he couldn't make any valid assumptions about it, but he was quite certain it wasn't too far-fetched to assume that it was dangerous. What if they would leave but never make it back? What if they got lost somewhere between the past and the future?

He was shaken out of his thoughts when Elena started to speak and out of the corner of his eye Stefan saw his father, standing very rigidly, apparently listening to every word being spoken with undivided attention. A rare sight. Glancing around the gathering Stefan realized that perhaps except for Katherine everyone seemed mesmerized by the scene, as if everybody could sense that something more than just a wedding was happening.

His eyes drifted to Emily and her eyes met his, her gaze as defiant as always, but there was also a trace of compassion in it and it puzzled Stefan, had him puzzled for a few moments before a twinge of cold pierced through his heart.

Just for a split second before he suppressed the thought, before he pushed it away, he found himself struck by the realization that what was happening here was not just a wedding.

It was a goodbye.

"I love you, Damon," Elena said in a quivering voice that seemed so fragile, unlike the inextinguishable light in her eyes. "I promise to remember every moment that we spent together, every word that you told me, every smile that you gave me," Elena spoke and the minister didn't dare to interrupt her, although he half-wondered if he should, because she seemed to be choking on her tears. "I promise to remember everything I feel right now."

Elena opened her mouth as if she wanted to say more, but her lips began to tremble, more tears welled up in her eyes and with a stifled sob she just threw her arms around Damon and held onto him with all her might.

A little caught off guard and baffled by the way the ceremony was going, the minister cleared his throat and somehow managed to communicate to Damon and Elena that it was time to exchange the rings and he breathed a sigh of relief when at least that part seemed to go smoothly.

"I pronounce you man and wife, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," the minister concluded, watching them both with increasing concern. There was something more to their behavior than even a very emotional reaction to getting married and he wished he could say something to ease the anguish lingering on their faces.

Damon gave Elena a reassuring smile, his gaze locked with hers and only when she fell into his arms again, he closed his eyes and held her in a tight embrace for a very long time.

Katherine arched an eyebrow, glancing around in search of something more interesting to look at.

Stefan shifted his eyes from her to Giuseppe who was watching the scene with stoic curiosity, the strange mysteriousness of the moment keeping any mocking off his gaze. Stefan looked to the ground before lifting his eyes back to Damon and Elena, his heart clenching at seeing the tears roll down Elena's cheeks as she continued crying in a way that seemed more reminiscent of a funeral than a wedding.

"May God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, bless, preserve, and keep you," the minister continued and Damon opened his eyes, giving him a sidelong glance and a weak smile, wishing those words were magical enough to really keep them safe and sound for a lifetime. "May the Lord mercifully with his favor look upon you and so fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace, that you may so live together in this life, that in the world to come you may have life everlasting."

Elena opened her eyes and burying her face in Damon's neck, she pressed a soft kiss to his skin, its intoxicating scent stronger than the bitter taste of her tears.

"Amen."

xxxdelenaxxx

 _Stefan, be happy. Take care of our mother and everyone else. I know you'd anyway. (Taking care of our mother may include marrying someone horrible, so she'd always regret not appreciating Elena as her daughter-in-law. Once Lily will be an emotional wreck, you could get a divorce and marry someone nice. Just an idea. For more revenge tips consult Enzo.)_

 _We will always love you and miss you._

 _Damon & Elena"_

"Stefan?"

Caroline marched into the room, looking Stefan up and down with an alert expression on her face.

"Are you OK?"

Stefan lifted his gaze from the page he was holding and nodded slowly.

"Is everyone here already?" He asked in a low, detached voice, as if his thoughts were still elsewhere.

"Yes, they've been here for a couple of hours already, because Hope wanted Bonnie and Freya to teach her some magic before all magic will be gone," Caroline said, chuckling briefly under her breath, waiting for Stefan to smile back at her, if only a little.

"And how is it going?" Stefan asked, carefully folding the piece of paper in his hand and sliding it back into the envelope.

"Not great," Caroline said with a small grimace, tilting her head from side to side and taking a few more steps inside the room. "They actually don't think Hope's a witch. I mean, she can see the thread, but she's a 'miracle baby', after all, so maybe that's the reason why. Some mystical energy thing, whatever."

Stefan kept nodding without looking at her, turning the envelope in his hands. Slowly, Caroline sat down next to him on the bed.

"What is this?" She asked. "The letter from Damon and Elena? Don't tell me you only read it now."

"I figured I should read it before they come back," Stefan said with a shrug.

Caroline narrowed her eyes at him, sensing the trepidation in his tone. "Hey." She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "They will."

"Have you read yours?"

"Don't change the subject," Caroline scoffed. "And yes, I have." She thrust up her chin. "Both."

"Both?"

"I got two letters."

Stefan made an impressed face that Caroline returned and then they both smiled and looked away.

"Granted the one from Damon consisted of _'I'm sorry'_ , but still." They exchanged another smile. "Did you actually have time to think about it?" Caroline asked with a frown. "Because I didn't."

"Think about what?"

Caroline gave Stefan a no-nonsense look. "About becoming human. I didn't even ask you if you needed more time-"

"I don't need any time to think about it," Stefan cut in with a faint smile, "and even if I did, I wouldn't be risking giving Klaus time to change his mind."

The knock on the open door interrupted the conversation and both Caroline and Stefan turned their heads toward the room entrance.

"May I come on?" Lily asked, stopping in the doorway.

Caroline swiftly rose to her feet. "I'm going to go round everyone up," she said, glancing at Stefan before heading out of the room. "I want to see you downstairs in ten minutes," she added in a decisive tone.

"I wanted to..." Lily started after Caroline had left, "apologize..." She trailed off noticing Stefan shake his head a little while standing up. "I was thinking about everything, these past few days and..."

"Mom."

Lily's eyes darted to Stefan at the word, the disappointment at being interrupted so soon clashing with the pensive way in which he was looking at her, with the tone of his voice.

"I don't need your apology. I used to think..." Stefan looked away with a frown. "I used to wait for those words, for long-winded explanations that I myself wasn't able to provide. But it's all in the past now. I know you've gone through much. I probably don't know half of it. I made my fair share of wrong choices and I have much to apologize for. What right do I have to judge you? Or grant you forgiveness?" He grimaced bitterly. "You were trying to survive the best you could and I can't blame you for falling off the edge. It happened to me, to all of us more than once. I can't ask for forgiveness most people that I hurt, because they're gone. And I have to live with that. But I don't have to live with that alone and I don't want you to be alone either."

Lily stared at him, blinking back the tears. Stefan chuckled hollowly, his own eyes misting over, a memory flashing through his head. The memory of that dark night in the forest, when it turned out Katherine wasn't in the tomb and Elena had walked up to Damon, had wrapped her arms around him while he was just standing there with unseeing eyes cast into the darkness. And Stefan remembered looking at them, thinking it was futile and pointless and wasn't going to help. Apparently, he was wrong.

He walked up to Lily who was watching him with wide eyes and gathered her stiff form into his arms. "I love you, mom."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Where are we going?" Elena asked, wondering if sneaking out of the parlor full of wedding guests was a good idea.

"If you're in the mood for small talk we may go back immediately," Damon offered, twirling her around the road.

Elena fell into his arms with a laugh. "No, I'd rather dance."

"We'll have time for that," Damon murmured with a roguish smile, brushing his lips across hers. "I just wanted to show you something."

Narrowing his eyes at Elena in a lop-sided smile, Damon led her toward a small hill, tiny yellow flowers scattered in the bright green grass shimmering under the soft gusts of wind.

Elena looked around and then shifted her eyes to Damon who was looking at her as if he was expecting some kind of reaction, but after taking another look around, Elena was at a loss, because except for the field, the flowers and a few houses in the distance she couldn't see anything that would warrant any special reaction.

"It's a lovely spot," she decided to say at last in a slightly mockingly polite voice, elegantly lacing her hands together in front of her.

"You mean you don't know where we are?" Damon snickered.

Elena bit her lip, scanning their surroundings once again. "Well..." She grimaced, confused, her eyes alight with amusement.

"If I'm gonna feel guilty about something, I'm gonna feel guilty about this," Damon said, cupping her face in his his hands and slowly, lovingly pressing his lips to hers.

Elena broke the kiss with a gasp. "We're on our porch?" She asked, looking around and laughing under her breath.

Damon nodded with a smile and then added when Elena looked at him. "It's here, even if we can't see it right now."

Elena's smile faltered a little, but Damon kissed her again before any tears appeared in her eyes.

"It doesn't matter if we're alive, dead, undead or asleep." He gently grazed the skin of her cheeks with his thumbs, before gliding his hand down her face, her arm, until letting it rest over her heart. "Everything that matters is and will always be here."

xxxdelenaxxx

"So I'm told you're Elena's mom."

Shane walked into the room after peering inside and noticing Isobel sitting all alone in an armchair by the window.

She turned her head to look at him. "And Elena happens to like you or just the opposite?"

Shane chuckled under his breath, slowly making his way across the room. "Well, I don't know if she likes me, but I don't think she hates me, so that's quite good, I guess?" He sat down in the other armchair across from Isobel. "Damon, on the other hand..." Shane trailed off in a deliberately troubled way.

Isobel tilted her head to the side with a small smile. "I'm sure you'll be able to work that out. When they come back," she added a little wistfully, averting her eyes from him. "When do we get started?" She asked before Shane had a chance to react to the sentiment. "It's been so quiet for a while."

"Bonnie, her grandmother and Freya are setting things up outside. They said they needed _relative_ silence to concentrate, so Caroline ordered everyone to keep mum. As a matter of fact, I think I'm not speaking quietly enough," Shane said, lowering his voice as much as it was possible in order for it to remain audible.

"Do you really don't know when or how they can come back?" Isobel asked in a low voice, holding his gaze.

Shane shook his head. "No, I really don't," he said sincerely. "But I know that they will," he added with a flicker of a smile that was simultaneously impish and solemn and so reassuring that it left no room for doubt. "Love is the only kind of magic that can conquer all."

xxxdelenaxxx

After all the guests had left, Giuseppe had asked to speak to Damon, so Elena had gone upstairs under the half-feigned pretext of feeling tired.

They didn't want to leave the house too late and were planning on leaving a good couple of hours before the dusk, just in case Emily would arrive early or in case of some unforeseen spell requirements that would take additional time to fulfill... since Elena was assuming Emily was going to perform some kind of spell to send them back in time.

Glancing at the clock, Elena wondered if she should just go downstairs and interrupt Damon and Giuseppe's conversation. What would sound plausible? That she was afraid of the dark? That she had a bad dream?

With a sigh, she slumped onto the bed and looked out of the window, absently turning her wedding band around her finger. She wished she could spend some time just sitting here, reliving their wedding, engraving the memory in her mind, but right now it was not the time to think about that.

The clock struck another hour and with a determined frown, Elena rose to her feet.

Taking one last look around the room, she allowed herself a few moments to ponder what it'd be like to stay here, to live here. Had they really met in 1864, they could've been happy here. Happy in that casual way they so longed for, that was repeatedly slipping through their fingers.

Shaking off the grim thoughts Elena reached out for the knob and opened the door.

"Going somewhere?" Katherine asked in a mockingly innocent tone.

She gave Elena a malevolent, satisfied sneer that twisted into a ferocious grimace in a flash.

She pounced on her and the pain caused by Katherine's fangs ripping into her neck made Elena lose consciousness within seconds.


	31. Chapter 31

A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for your amazing reviews! *hugs*

I'm leaving in three days and I thought I should leave you on a slightly less nerve-wracking cliffhanger ;)

See you in July/August :)

 **Chapter 31**

Elena woke up with a headache so severe it immediately started making her feel nauseous. With a stifled moan, she blinked her eyes open and the first thing she saw was an orange glow coming from the window.

Pulling herself up to the sitting position she quickly recognized the cottage she and Damon had been to before. The memory of Katherine compelling Damon to hurt her quickly making the nauseous feeling morph into anger that re-energized Elena enough to clear her head.

She brushed her hair off her face and frowned at the unpleasant sensation of her hand feeling strangely sticky. Blood. Elena looked at her hand, her jaw clenching at the sight. She quickly touched her neck recalling Katherine's attack as her last memory before she had lost consciousness.

The gash on her neck seemed deep and Elena grimaced at the pain before freezing in panic. What if Katherine turned her? Elena's eyes widened in dismay. What if something happened to the baby? If she was dead-

"Took you long enough."

Katherine's voice interrupted Elena's sudden realization just how much time must've passed. The sun was already setting. They should be meeting with Emily right now! They should be going home!

"What did you do?" Elena asked through her teeth, looking around in search of something that could aid her in trying to escape. She had no time to lose. She had to get out of this house before it was completely dark, while she still could make her way through the forest. "Did you turn me?" She asked sharply, giving Katherine a pointed look, trying to look angry, not scared of the possible answer.

Katherine arched an eyebrow, tilting her head to the side. "Turn you? Well, I see we are in the clear at least about one thing now. You know who I am." She glided across the small space, her dress making a quiet, swishing sound whenever she turned on her heels. She stopped in front of Elena, narrowing her eyes at her, watching Elena's efforts to get up from the floor with a sardonically amused smile plastered onto her face. "How?"

"I'm not going to tell you anything," Elena said with a derisive grimace, slowly standing up. "I asked you a question."

With a glint of annoyance in her eyes, Katherine pushed Elena back down to the floor and stepped aside.

Elena gasped, instinctively falling onto her hands and rolling onto her side to protect her midsection.

"I would be more careful if I were you," Katherine said with a gasp of mock concern. "You lost _lots_ of blood." She squinted. "And you may lose even more if you don't start answering _my_ questions."

Elena shot her a glare that only seemed to amuse Katherine more.

"I don't want to turn you into a vampire, because you're only of any use to me as my human doppelganger. I'm going to turn you to Klaus in exchange for my freedom. However, I don't think Klaus cares if you are pregnant or not," she added in a mockingly speculative, menacing voice, holding Elena's gaze.

Then her eyes widened a little and she was caught off guard when all of a sudden Elena jumped back to her feet and tossed at Katherine a framed picture she'd grabbed off the wall. But the momentary distraction didn't confuse Katherine for long. She violently grabbed Elena's arm before Elena managed to get to the door.

"You recovered your strength very fast," Katherine said with a sneer before sinking her fangs into the other side of Elena's neck.

Elena screamed and with her back against the wall she slid to the floor, the blood dripping from both sides of her neck.

Katherine looked at her, wiping the blood off her mouth with the back of her hand. "Maybe now you will be more inclined to behave."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Have you seen Elena?"

Stefan jolted upright when Damon stormed into his room, the expression on his face stopping Stefan from making any jocular comments concerning the situation.

"I thought she went to your room when you went to talk to father?" Stefan offered, quickly rising to his feet.

"She did, but she isn't there right now," Damon said, absently scanning the room with an anxious frown on his face.

"Maybe she went to the library-"

"I checked everywhere in the house," Damon interrupted him impatiently, turning around.

Emily was also nowhere to be found, but Damon doubted Elena would've left with her without leaving him as much as a note. Besides, they were going to go meet Emily together, so there was no reason for Elena to go there all by herself. There was still time until the sunset.

Stefan followed Damon into the corridor. "Maybe she went outside-"

Stefan stopped abruptly in his tracks when Damon came to a sudden halt in front of Katherine's room and then to Stefan's wordless dismay he pushed the door open without knocking.

However, the failure to enter politely didn't seem to matter, because the room proved empty.

With a stifled groan Damon rushed out of the room and down the stairs. "Stay here, in case Elena comes back," Damon called out to him, preventing him from following him outside.

"Where are you going? What is going on?"

Damon wanted to just ignore the questions, but then he stopped half way through the porch and turned around and for a moment just stared at Stefan who was standing in the open door, the light from the inside slightly brighter than the late afternoon sunlight outside.

He wished he had time for a proper goodbye.

But there was no time. He had to find Elena. And then they had to make it in time for their trip back.

"Damon?" Stefan prompted, not sure what this strange moment of silence meant, but then he froze when Damon whispered with a ghost of a bittersweet smile flitting across his face and that glimpse of concern and love that always made Stefan believe in himself.

"Goodbye, brother."

xxxdelenaxxx

"I knew I'd find someone in here," Miranda said, peering into the kitchen. "Everything is ready outside. They're going to start the spell in a minute."

"Thank you," Desmond said, returning Miranda's smile. He looked at Lily who was standing motionlessly with a glass of water in her hands, her eyes fixed on the floor.

"What if something goes wrong?" Lily murmured under her breath, the words so quiet as if she was speaking to herself. "What if destroying all magic makes it impossible for them to come back?" She asked before Miranda managed to formulate a reassuring reply to her previous sentiment.

"That is a very valid point," John cut in, stopping in the doorway. "I was thinking about that too," he said matter-of-factly, seemingly oblivious to the effect his words had on Lily. "Coming back involves some kind of a magical portal, doesn't it? So if this place won't have any magic-"

"John, could you please refrain from speaking of things you know nothing about," Isobel interrupted him, glancing at Miranda who nodded.

"I think the best we can do right now is to stay optimistic," Miranda said, giving John a pointed look. "And I feel like I'm saying it to you for at least the fifth time today," she added under her breath.

Isobel smiled briefly before turning her head to look at Alaric who just approached them.

"If anyone is having second thoughts, it's time to voice them, because they're starting."

"Like anyone cares what I think," John muttered, turning around and walking off.

"What's his problem?" Alaric asked, looking between everyone.

Miranda was about to reply, but Enzo who just craned his neck to look inside cut her off.

"Probably you. Can't blame him. Come on. It's time to go," he said in one breath ignoring the look that Alaric gave him. "By the way, that's the guy who messed with Elena's memories," he added on his way out, pointing to Alaric while looking around at everyone except for him.

Alaric's forehead wrinkled in a frown that only deepened when out of the corner of his eye he noticed a glimpse of amusement in Isobel's eyes.

"Do you really think he's funny?" He asked, sincerely puzzled.

Isobel shrugged. "Well, even if he isn't, you only have yourself to blame, Ric," she said, tapping him lightly on the shoulder before leaving the kitchen as well.

xxxdelenaxxx

"You _are_ stubborn," Katherine said with an annoyed snort. "I'll ask you for the last time. Who are you? Where do you come from? How do you know I'm a vampire?"

Elena was sitting on the floor, holding her head in her hands and trying not to faint. She was feeling lightheaded from the blood loss, dark spots flickering in front of her eyes whenever she blinked. For the first time ever she found herself wishing she was a vampire, so she could heal and summon the strength to fight, instead of lying on the floor, barely capable of keeping herself conscious.

Katherine's voice was beginning to sound distorted to her and it wasn't a good sign. Elena felt tears burn her eyes at the thought that every second of this, every drop of blood she lost was endangering the baby. She wanted to stand up to Katherine but she was afraid that she'd be risking the baby's safety. For that reason fighting was not on option and sneaking out seemed like the only possible way out, but there was no telling what Katherine's plan was and if she'd leave her alone at any point. Even if she did, she'd probably make sure to limit her chances of escaping as much as possible. Not to mention that there was no time to wait for an opportune moment to escape. It was almost dark outside. She had to get out _now_.

Sliding her hands off her face Elena looked up, meeting Katherine's gaze.

"What a pitiful sight. You should see yourself," Katherine said sardonically, looking Elena up and down, taking in the smears of blood on Elena's face, her bloodied hands, her blood-stained wedding dress. "Maybe then you'd realize how bad your situation is. And it's going to get worse if you don't start talking," she added, stepping closer to Elena and pretending as if she was going to kick her before turning around with a laugh. "The panic in your eyes is so amusing I think I am going to drag it out for a bit."

"I will end you."

Katherine stopped in her tracks and slowly turned around.

"You wanted to know who I am," Elena said with fierceness that made Katherine pause, the strength in Elena's voice contrasting so much with her appearance, with her face pale from the blood loss. "I'm the person who will take you down. You'll hurt everyone I love. You'll steal my life," Elena spoke in a clear, steady voice, slowly pulling herself to a standing position, Katherine seemingly not even noticing it, her full attention on Elena's words. "But then I'll come back and you, you will be dragged straight to hell."

The flash of bewilderment and aggravation in Katherine's eyes didn't bode well and Elena started questioning the wisdom of riling her up, but the second it looked like Katherine was about to launch herself toward her, suddenly her head turned violently to one side and then Katherine's limp body crashed to the floor.

Elena's breath caught in her throat from surprise and then she laughed brokenly from relief. As much as she'd always loved Damon's roguish smile, it had never looked to her as exhilaratingly beautiful as it did now.

"Nice speech," Damon said, shaking off his hands. "The neck snapping is much less fun with human hands," he muttered with a brief grimace before leaping over Katherine's unconscious form to get to Elena. "Elena. Are you OK?" He asked under his breath with utmost concern, dropping to his knees beside her.

Elena closed her eyes for a second, reveling in the comfort of his warm hands on her cheeks. "Yes." She nodded. "I think I'm mostly OK," she said, opening her eyes while Damon started examining the wounds on her neck with an angry frown. "Let's get out of here," Elena said, glancing out of the window and hoping that it was only the dust-covered glass that was making it seem as if it was completely dark outside by now.

"I have a lantern outside. It should last for a little while," Damon said, giving Elena a reassuring smile before ripping off the sleeves of his shirt to tie them around Elena's neck. "If only I could feed you my blood-" Damon murmured and then paused for a second, his eyes meeting Elena's.

She winced. "I don't want to drink her blood," Elena said, guessing the idea that sprung to Damon's mind. "Maybe Emily will be able to help with that and if not, then I'll just go to the hospital when we get back home." She tried to smile, but the inevitable tragedy attached to their trip back brought tears to her eyes. She cradled Damon's face in her hands and rested her forehead against his. "I'm not ready for this," she whispered with a feverish grimace, breathing in Damon's scent, trying to engrave in her memory the exact texture of his skin under her palms despite knowing that the moment she'd draw back her hands she'd feel the loss, wouldn't stop feeling it for the rest of her life.

"Elena."

Damon's voice made Elena open her eyes, his tone comforting, decisive, like in all those moments when she was afraid of being too brave or not brave enough and he'd always say and do the right thing to either push her over the edge or drag her back from the precipice.

He waited for her to look at him, his eyes boring into hers when he cupped her face in his hands and whispered earnestly.

"You will survive this, Elena." He brushed his mouth against hers and smiled, his lips touching hers when he added before kissing her hungrily again. "You always survive."

xxxdelenaxxx

"But where all the magic will go?" Hope asked again, her eyes glued to Sheila, Freya, Enzo and Bonnie's hands making all the ingredients in a large bowl whirl, their incantations humming through the air.

The spell was supposed to take more than an hour to cast, but everyone was standing absolutely still, watching the scene in almost reverent silence.

"Magic is just going to disappear," Rebekah replied with a smile and wink, glancing at Klaus who did his best to look utterly bored while looking around at the trees and birds passing by.

Unlike Elijah, who seemed to quit blinking altogether, his eyes shifting between the pages he'd brought, the spell inscribed in even, scarlet letters on the tattered sheets Isobel and Alaric volunteered to be holding for Sheila, Bonnie, Freya and Enzo.

"Mrs. Flowers says nothing in nature can really disappear," Hope insisted, feeling a little disappointed by her earlier failed attempts at practicing magic before it'd go away completely.

She wished she could spend at least half a day as a real witch.

"Who is Mrs. Flowers?" Stefan asked, hoping the overall tension to ease by letting his mind concentrate on something else, even if only for a few seconds.

His heart was hammering in his chest in nervous anticipation for the spell to work out, so Damon and Elena could safely return whenever it would be possible for them to do so.

"Mrs. Flowers is my teacher," Hope replied with a smile. "She is very nice."

"I see." Stefan nodded. "I didn't know you were going to preschool."

"I only go there sometimes. When I feel like it," Hope explained in such a matter-of-fact tone of voice that it brightened Stefan's mood a little.

"Yes, that's Nik's responsible parenting for you," Rebekah said, exchanging a smile with Stefan.

"Sounds cool to me," Jeremy said with a shrug, glancing at his parents who looked like they needed a momentary distraction to start breathing.

Miranda gave Jeremy a weak smile, lacing her hand through Grayson's arm. She glanced over her shoulder at Lily and Desmond who looked equally anxious and rigid. She made a mental note to tell them later that it would all become merely a memory one day, a family anecdote they would keep recounting during holidays.

"So where will the magic go?" Undeterred by the lack of a satisfactory response so far, Hope repeated her question. "It has to go _somewhere_."

Rebekah was about to reiterate that it didn't have to go anywhere, but then Shane cut in.

"Even if it goes somewhere, we aren't allowed to know where. That's the whole point of disappearing," he said in a conspiratorial whisper, giving Hope a smile.

Rebekah raised her eyebrow at him, but said nothing, considering this as good an explanation as any.

Hope pursed her lips as if she was trying to decide if she was convinced. After a moment of consideration, she seemed to accept the explanation and with a sigh not entirely devoid of disappointment, she ran to Klaus who picked her up from the ground and they went on watching the scene with their cheeks pressed together.

"I hope you didn't really mean that," Rebekah said, glancing at Shane and wondering if his casually polite demeanor was a sign he didn't remember, didn't care or only pretended to neither remember nor care that she had been the last person to see him on the island which probably made her most responsible for leaving him there to die.

"About magic going somewhere and not dispersing into the thin air? Well, to be quite honest it's not like this kind of spell has been done before, so who knows what's going to happen," Shane offered with a shrug.

"He's just messing with you," Jeremy said when a flicker of panic flashed in Rebekah's eyes.

"So he better stops doing that, because I'm in no mood for jokes!" Rebekah snapped, annoyed.

She stomped away from Shane and walked up to stand next to Caroline and Liz.

Suppressing a smile, Shane shifted his eyes to Jeremy. "Actually-"

"I know no one knows what's really going to happen, but Klaus and his crazy family are not the people you want to discuss this with," Jeremy said under his breath.

"The thing is, nothing in nature disappears, but is magic a part of nature?" Shane asked, but didn't look as if he was waiting for an answer.

Jeremy pondered this for a second, finding himself intrigued despite his better judgment. "Do I want to know if you think it is?" He asked with a mirthless snort.

"That depends on your definition of magic," Shane replied evasively, a hint of a smile in his voice.

Jeremy waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "I knew I shouldn't be starting this conversation."

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena never thought there were so many shades of darkness.

When they left the cottage, the night seemed to have already fallen and yet she could see their silhouettes, the sky above, the shapes of trees, branches above their heads. The lantern was helping them follow a path between the trees, but when the light died down they were left in the murkily dark surroundings that seemed to be made of sounds more than of anything visible.

Another few minutes passed and the only real thing in her proximity seemed to be Damon's hand wrapped tightly around hers, their fingers entwined together as they marched across the darkness as quickly as possible.

The night seemed to be thickening around them. All the distinct shapes morphing into the impenetrable space that no longer revealed any path to follow. At times it felt as if they were trudging through the black, heavy mist that made it impossible for them not only to see anything, but it also felt as if simply keeping their eyes open hurt, because all they could look at was the dense, black air wrapping itself around them like a suffocating, dark dream.

"Damon, we'll be too late," Elena blurted out despite trying not to put this fear into words. "We won't even get out of here before the dawn," she added, stopping abruptly in her tracks.

"Elena, don't think that." She couldn't see Damon's face, but felt his lips skim across her cheek before he spoke. "We have to keep going. Emily will wait for us. We were supposed to meet after the sunset. She never said we could only go back at sunset. The spell can probably be performed at any time during the night."

"She never said she was going to perform any spell either," Elena replied, not wishing to douse Damon's reassuring words, but at the same time unable to ignore the obvious reasons to be afraid that they wouldn't make it.

"Elena?"

Elena opened her eyes, the darkness around her falling away for a moment when the light emanating off his light blue eyes lit up her tears and it was almost, almost bright around them for a split second.

"We have to make it on time," she whispered.

Damon nodded. Elena's voice was heavy with tears and that gritty warmth that had haunted him ever since he'd realized she only used that tone when she was determined to be fearless and strong, no matter the circumstances. Later, he'd also realized that she only used that tone when she talked to him, because she trusted him with all the undertones of uncertainty and fear that she wouldn't let anyone else hear, anyone but him.

"We have to go," Elena repeated firmly and Damon could feel her eyelashes flutter against his.

He closed his arms around her and smiled faintly, finding her lips after trailing soft kisses across her cheek.

"Yes," he whispered back against Elena's lips, brushing the tears off her face with the tips of his thumbs.

They kissed again and then held each other for a few moments in complete silence, the darkness around them shrinking to the level of just another obstacle. They had overcome so many of them. For each other, for the people they loved. Why wouldn't they succeed in overcoming them for their child?

It was a moment so quiet and yet Damon felt as if it surged through them like a waterfall, the realization, the acceptance of what they were fighting for.

It didn't matter anymore what happened to them. Their love always took precedence but now there was something even more important than that. Now their love was not only about them. Now there was someone else they both loved more than anything in the world.

Her arms wrapped around Damon's neck, Elena opened her eyes, bracing herself to break the embrace and resume their search for a way out to get to their meeting place where Emily was waiting for them-

Elena drew a breath and held it.

At first she thought it was just a trick her eyes were playing on her, an illusion created by the darkness surrounding them. But a few more seconds of staring at the incredible sight convinced her otherwise.

"Damon."

Damon drew back to look at Elena, even though he didn't expect to be able to see her face. But she tugged on his hand and guided him to turn around, so he would see what she was seeing.

Damon blinked in bafflement.

"Do you see this too?" Elena asked, but judging from the way his hand grasped hers more tightly she was already sure he was sharing her strange vision.

Which meant that it wasn't just a figment of her imagination. It was something real.

"Yes," Damon whispered, trying to make sense of the puzzling apparition. "It's a..."

He trailed off, not sure what word would be appropriate to describe what looked like a gold thread... A path, a trail.

In front of them, starting somewhere under their feet even though they couldn't place its exact beginning, was a thin rope. Or rather a thread. It looked very delicate, but it was sparkling so brightly, glowing in the darkness so much that the light made it look unbreakable.

"I think this is showing us a way," Elena said uncertainly, not quite knowing what to think, but somehow she couldn't imagine a different explanation.

The gold thread looked beautiful and surreal, like a stream of sunlight shooting through the impervious darkness. A luminous trail in the pathless forest, illuminating the way.

"Let's follow it," Damon said under his breath, his tone pensive but not dubious and Elena glanced up at him to verify the impression.

He was always distrustful of such things but now it seemed that he felt the same what she was feeling. That it was a path they could trust.

Elena slid his fingers in between his and gathered all of her willpower to smile when he looked at her. "Let's go."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Did you let Hayley know about this?" Rebekah asked, leaning toward Elijah who nodded without tearing his eyes away from the witches.

"Of course. She and her pack are nearby," he said, slightly inclining his head to indicate the nearby forest.

Rebekah followed his gaze and then crossed her arms over her chest and continued watching the spell being performed. "Do you know where all the magic will go?" She asked after a pause.

A small smile flickered across Elijah's face. "I see Hope questioned everyone on the occasion."

"I actually didn't think about it before at all, but now I'm beginning to think she has a valid point," Rebekah admitted with a sigh, her forehead creasing in thought.

"Don't worry, Rebekah," Elijah said in a low, reassuring voice. "The magic _is_ about to vanish."

The pages that Isobel and Alaric were holding were suddenly torn out of their hands by a gust of gray wind. The pieces of yellowed paper burst into flames and fell in the form of ashes straight into the bowl in front of Bonnie, Sheila, Freya and Enzo.

They finished their incantations and along with everyone else started watching the bowl spin and rattle until layers of thickening mist began pouring out of it, flooding over its sides and onto the ground.

"You know, there's nothing about the concept of vanishing that makes it permanent, Elijah," Rebekah said quietly, watching what was happening with wide eyes.

"You're beginning to sound like our brother," Elijah replied, squinting in a brief smile.

Rebekah chuckled wryly. "Isn't it what 'always and forever' is all about? That in the end, we're all the same."

The layers of fog touched the ground and with a hissing sound they seemed to sink into it.

They couldn't really see anything but everyone started looking at everyone else to see if they were feeling the same thing, the ground under their feet shifting ever so slightly. For a split second it felt very cold and very warm, before the strange sensation disappeared and another gust of wind seemed to drape complete silence over their surroundings.

Klaus raised his eyebrows, giving Freya an exaggeratedly questioning look, to which she replied by handing him a small knife.

Hope shifted her eyes between the knife and Klaus' face, holding her breath when Klaus placed her on the ground and then proceeded to rolling up his sleeve.

"Any advice on where the scar will look best?" He asked, looking over his shoulder at Caroline who gave him a no-nonsense look in return.

Klaus shrugged. "Oh well."

Hope gasped and winced when Klaus ran the knife across his forearm, the blood bubbling to the surface, a few drops dripping to the ground.

The seconds seemed to drag.

"It's not healing," Rebekah finally said in a voice that always made Stefan smiled, because it sounded simultaneously happy and upset.

Slowly, Elijah lifted his gaze and looked past their gathering toward the forest line while Bonnie tried to light a candle she'd brought with a flick of her hand.

It didn't work.

She glanced at Sheila and they exchanged faint smiles.

Shifting her eyes away from Klaus' arm as soon as he brushed the blood away, Hope followed Elijah's gaze and then the silence was categorically broken when Hope's eyes lit up and she cried out at the top of her lungs before breaking into a run.

"Mommy!"

xxxdelenaxxx

Hand in hand, Damon and Elena followed the sparkling thread. It looked as if it was made of gold stardust and it was difficult to look away from it, something so reassuring in the way in which it was glowing in the dark, dispersing not only the darkness, but also their fears.

They didn't even realize how much time it took them to get out of the forest and arrive at the clearing by the river where they saw Emily, sitting in a circle made of several bonfires, orange flames reaching high up into the air and then suddenly two of them crashed to the ground in peculiar, fiery waves, as if marking an entrance.

When Damon and Elena stepped inside, the flames ascended again, leaving them inside the blazing circle along with Emily who stood up from the ground to greet them.

"You came," she said with a smile that was as usual difficult to decipher.

Without explaining her actions she picked up from the ground two thick leaves she seemed to have prepared earlier and walked up to Elena.

"We-" Elena started, wishing to explain why they arrived so late, but Emily cut her off with a shake of her head.

"I know what happened," she said, pressing the potion-soaked leaves to both sides of Elena's neck and closing her eyes for a few seconds. When she took the leaves away, Elena's neck was healed. Elena thanked her, but then her eyes flew wide open when Emily added. "I was the one to tell Katherine she should act now."

"What?" Damon exclaimed with a frown and Elena squeezed his hand harder to keep him from lashing out on an impulse before hearing the whole story, because Elena had no doubt there was more to it.

"I am sorry about the inconvenience," Emily said flatly. "But it was necessary. It gave you an excuse not to come. Yet here you are."

Elena frowned. "You mean it was a test?"

"Excuse?" Damon echoed, perplexed.

Emily's mouth quirked into a weak smile. "The spell you used to come here was a loop spell. It was always meant to revert itself, unless you would fail to trigger the reversal."

The wind rustled the trees in the distance and then seemed to start revolving around them, slowly at first and then with increasing strength and speed, distorting the shapes of fiery flames.

"I don't think we have time for a long conversation," Emily said, looking up, raising her voice to make it audible above the wind. "You triggered the reversal, because your love is true. It is not selfish. You could've used Katherine's attack as an excuse not to come and as a result save you life." She looked at Damon and then shifted her eyes to Elena. "Not to lose him. Instead you both chose to save your child."

Elena bit her lip, her breath catching in her throat, the wind brushing the tears off her eyes.

"This is an exquisite spell," Emily said, screamed through the wind, her eyes gleaming with sincere appreciation for the phenomenon itself and the look in her eyes reminded Elena about something she hadn't thought much about, but she found the thought reassuring now: that Emily Bennett was one of the most powerful witches in history. "When you leave this time and place everything here will be as it were before. The past will not be changed. I will not remember you. Or your answer to my question," Emily added with a grimace, her eyes acquiring the transparency they didn't have before. "Will my daughter survive?"

"Your line will survive," Damon replied with a fleeting smile and Emily caught the recollection enclosed in his tone, but there was no time to inquire about the details. "We'll say 'hi' to your great-great-great-great-great granddaughter from you."

"Bonnie is the one who helped us get here in the first place," Elena said, giving Emily a reassuring smile that brightened her features. "Bonnie Bennett."

"That is good to know," Emily replied a little shakily and then drew a breath. "Travel safe!" She said and Elena wondered if she really had nothing to do with the spell, because the wind seemed to intensify at the flick of her hand.

"We left through fire, arrived through water. There are four elements. Should have figured there was a way to come back," Damon said, giving Elena what he realized might be his last smile.

He grasped Elena's arms and kissed her ardently, the noise of the wind muffled by his hands sliding across her face and ears, into her hair. Elena's arms locked around him and she kissed him back with equally ravenous impatience.

"I love you, Elena Gilbert. I love you!" Damon screamed through the wind, squinting against the strong gusts of wind that were tossing their hair in all directions.

The wind was whooshing around them, the whizzing noise drowning all the sounds. Damon smiled, pressing a searing kiss to Elena's lips after she screamed the words back at him, their warm embrace immune to the cool wind whirring around them.

Such a long way it was and at the same time so excruciatingly short. In his mind's eye Damon thought back to the first moment when he'd heard her voice, that split second before he'd turned his head, before he'd seen her on that dark, misty, empty road. Why were the most life-changing moments always so inconspicuous?

And now it was her voice that would become his last memory. The wind distorting the air, making it impossible for them to see each other. And it was only the warmth of her body, her arms wrapped around his neck and her voice against his skin that carried him through the amorphous layers of shimmering space all the way home where he was going to die maybe even before he'd have a chance to look at her for the last time.

"I love you, Damon!"

During her five-year long sleep, he'd once conjured up a movie screen for her to see the future they would have. The perfectly happy future they could have together.

" _Come on. Time to abandon ship."_

He was recalling it now, every moment he'd wanted to remind her about, every detail, every smile he'd come up with to cheer her up, to convince her that all of it would happen. That she just had to hold on, cling to their dreams, never let go of hope.

" _Wait!"_

He wanted to see this movie now, wanted to relive every moment they had spent together, imagine every moment they could have.

" _Just give it a second."_

But there was no time.

Her life would continue without him. There was no future for them, so it seemed only right that his last memory would be a memory of the past.

The vision of the rain pouring down in torrents blended with the present, their trip back home, their lips inseparable as they were rushing through the endless myriads of nights and days, breaking through the thousands of invisible clocks.

How strange, Damon thought that Elena's tears now tasted like raindrops on her lips that night, her words reverberating in his head like the most inconsonant goodbye.

 _"It'll clear up."_

"Damon!"

" _It'll clear up-"_


	32. Chapter 32

A/N: Thank you so so so much for all of your wonderful reviews!

I hope you're still here ^^ As for me, let's just say that all is well that ends well. I have no idea why my life is so weird, but maybe one day I'll figure it out lol Anyway. I'm truly glad I can spend six more (probably spectacularly long ;) chapters with Damon & Elena and all of you :)

& Just two little (obvious? haha) things... a) please be patient with me, because the remaining updates are going to be slow; b) I'm sorry about the cliffhanger... *hides*

 **Chapter 32**

" _It will clear up."_

"Damon!"

He should've probably expected for his place of final rest not to be very restful. It's not like he deserved eternal peace or anything. Still, it seemed that violent shaking by the arms and repeated slaps on the face were a bit too much.

"Damon!"

Then again if they were accompanied by Elena's voice, it was going to take some acting skills to pretend this kind of perpetual assault bothered him. If he was in hell and that was their idea of torturing him forever he might actually find it more than endurable.

"Damon!"

Damon's eyes snapped open and he blinked, mumbling "it will clear up" again without even realizing it.

Elena's sighed in relief when she saw him open his eyes.

"Thank God," she gasped and Damon felt the sudden pressure of her arms closing around him, cradling him to her.

It felt so real. Elena's forearms brushing against the skin of his neck, Elena's soft lips on his cheek. It was a cruel dream, but he wished for nothing more than for this dream to last. It all felt so blissfully real that he opted for closing his eyes again to make it easier to imagine that it was really happening.

Reluctantly, afraid that the apparition might disappear if he displayed any signs of believing it, Damon lifted his arms and very slowly locked them around Elena.

Even in dreams she was emanating with light and warmth. He smiled weakly to himself. Even in death she made him feel alive.

But then something in the way Elena whispered his name made him reconsider his unwavering conviction that he was only dreaming her now.

He opened his eyes and stared at the crater surrounding them, a strange, vast hole in the ground that looked like a monstrous grave except that the uncertain, incredible thought that he wasn't dead was slowly making its way to his brain.

The unmistakable sense of Elena's presence, her body pressed to his. With every passing moment Damon was becoming more and more certain that she wasn't, she couldn't be just a figment of his deceased imagination.

His gaze drifted to Elena's hair brushing against his cheek, so irrationally close and tangible, every strand so delicate and bright like on that sunny day when they had been driving back from Georgia.

" _I saved your life."_

She'd tilted her head backwards with a smile he'd found most endearing, because she'd looked so genuinely happy about what had happened and that she was the one who had made it happen. He remembered thinking he'd wanted to know her so much better and yet he'd felt as if he'd known her forever.

As if they had already happened, as if he'd just had to break through some kind of dark oblivion and discover all the reasons why they had always been meant to be.

" _I know."_

He'd glanced at her then, trying not to stare. His heart had skipped a beat when Elena had narrowed her eyes in a humorous expression, her tone of voice as carefree and relaxed as if she was talking to a best friend.

" _And don't you ever forget it."_

Damon's mouth twitched into a bittersweet smile at the memory, at the thought that Elena had been right in a way that neither of them had been able to fully comprehend back then.

And now...

Damon held his breath when Elena drew back and looked at him with such a radiant smile that he thought that even if he was dead, that look alone would've been bound to bring him back to life.

"You're OK!" Elena cried out, cupping his face in her hands, her eyes roaming all over him in feverish excitement.

"How is that possible?" Damon whispered with a tentative frown, still not allowing himself to fully believe that it was really happening, that he deserved this one more miracle to happen to him.

He reached out to touch Elena's cheeks, outline the contour of her face with his fingertips.

"I don't know!" Elena replied, grinning, her voice so full of absolute joy that after a few moments of staring at each other in wonder they both laughed.

"Now, that's what I'd call perfect timing."

Damon and Elena froze and then looked up, their eyes widening at the sight of Bonnie standing at the edge of the crater in which they seem to have landed.

Her eyes full of tears, Bonnie tried to retain a flippant demeanor. "I've got to say, you left the least impressive element to come back by, then again, maybe it's a symbolic one. Welcome back on earth."

"Technically, we've never left earth," Damon pointed out, squinting, his hand surreptitiously finding Elena's and clinging to it. She was real. And he wasn't dead.

Without looking at him, Elena mirrored the gesture, tears gathering in her eyes, her heart pounding in her chest at the incredible, revitalizing thought that Damon and their baby, that all the three of them were going to get out of this impossible predicament unscathed. Even in her thoughts, she was almost afraid to put this exhilarating realization into words.

Bonnie shook her head with a snort.

Elena smiled, but then remembered about the main concern connected with their return. "Bonnie, what about the spell?" Elena asked with an anxious frown, her eyes shifting from Bonnie to Damon, her hands flying back to his face that didn't look like it aged a day.

"The spell is null and void," Bonnie announced with a smug smile and then laughed brokenly.

She didn't know how they were all even able to behave in such a rational way while the only rational reaction seemed to be wild laughter and tears.

Elena's eyes flew wide open and she laughed briefly, beaming, when Damon abruptly pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her hair. They clung to each other with all their might for a few, quiet seconds before drawing back, their hands shaking a little when they interlocked their fingers together.

Mere few moments ago they had been bracing themselves for being separated forever, but all the nightmares shattered and now there was a lifetime of beautiful days ahead of them.

"And so is all magic," Jeremy amended, appearing next to Bonnie. "Welcome home," he said in a low voice, smiling down at Elena.

Elena grinned back but then blinked in bewilderment. "Wait. What?" She asked, her eyes darting between Jeremy and Bonnie who laughed at her reaction.

"That's what happens when we leave you alone for five minutes," Damon said in a mockingly stern tone.

Elena hugged him once more. "Thank you," She said in a cracking voice, giving Bonnie a thankful look over Damon's shoulder.

Bonnie smiled. "You wish!" she said with a brief laugh. "If you want to see whom you really owe thanks for that you need to get out."

Jeremy jumped in to help Elena and Damon stand and soon they were all hauled out of the crater by joint efforts of Grayson, John, Desmond and Shane.

"You've got to be kidding me," Damon muttered, glancing at Elena, but she seemed too happy to be surprised or care about seeing Shane.

"I know, right?" Shane retorted wryly with a glint of amusement in his eyes.

Despite trying to only smile, Elena felt tears roll down her cheeks when she found herself in Miranda and Grayson's arms.

"Caroline says group hugs are best," Elena said when after opening her eyes she noticed Isobel and John waiting nearby.

They smiled and rushed to her and it crossed Elena's mind that she didn't regret a single bad thing that had ever happened to her if all of those horrible moments had been leading to this surrealistically perfect moment now.

Damon watched the scene with a smile that faltered a little when he was confronted with a pair of light blue eyes filled with tears. He'd only seen this kind of expression in brown and green eyes. Only Elena and Stefan ever looked at him that way, as if the entire world was suddenly reduced to him, as if the fact that he was alright meant everything.

"I know what you want to ask," Damon quipped, aiming to lighten the mood, because he didn't know how else to deal with this kind of new relation, even though he felt strangely glad that now he might have a chance to learn. "And the answer is 'no, you can't keep the car'."

Desmond chuckled hollowly, clearly too overwhelmed to speak and then to Damon's bewilderment, without a warning he just went up to him and hugged him. When he drew back, Damon had no time to recover, because another shock followed when he found himself pulled into Lily's arms.

Elena looked at them with a happy, tearful smile and stifled a laugh when Damon widened his eyes at her and slightly extended his hands in a helpless shrug, signaling that he had no idea what was going on.

"I'm sorry. About everything. I love you," Lily blurted out in one breath before drawing back and her words, her voice, heavy with tears knocked all the jokes out of Damon's head.

After being released from all of her parents' group hug, Elena exchanged a grin with Desmond before sharing a welcoming hug with him as well, but only for a second before Jenna threw her arms around her.

"And what are _you_ doing here?"

Damon's mockingly puzzled tone caused Elena to look up and she drew a breath, happily astonished by the sight.

"Well..." Alaric inhaled and exhaled shakily, shifting his gaze between Damon and Elena, his face devoid of a smile, but his eyes glimmering with undeniable joy at the sight of them. "Sometimes I do things I don't have to do," he said in a low, firm voice, his eyes stopping at Damon.

Elena's eyes darted to Damon as well and she felt like some weight was lifted off her shoulders when she noticed a flicker of a knowing smile pass through Damon's face, reaching his eyes and staying there.

On an impulse, all of them stepped forward at the same time and fell into a hug that Jenna figured, judging from a small smile on Jeremy's face, was long overdue.

John frowned, a little annoyed about the way in which Alaric hugged Elena and Damon to him, with some odd kind of entitlement, as if he was their only or at least an ultimate parent.

"Hey, I feel left out," Jeremy said, stifling a smile, before joining in the hug for a split second.

"At least you got a hug. I got the lamest letter and no hug at all yet," Bonnie said in a pretendedly upset voice and then shrieked when both Damon and Elena grabbed her to give her a proper hug.

"As for the letter, do you have _any_ idea how long it took us to draw all these?" Damon asked with a grimace, squinting.

Elena nodded vigorously, trying to keep herself from laughing.

"I'm here too!" Enzo announced joyfully, trying to squeeze in, which caused Bonnie to pull away.

"By the way, he's been stalking me," Bonnie told Damon and Elena, pointing to Enzo.

Enzo widened his eyes at her in feigned indignation over the unexpected accusation and then leaned in very close to Damon and Elena and whispered. "I may need a little help, so if you could put a good word or two for me, it would be much appreciated. You could tell Bonnie all about how I saved your life," he offered helpfully, giving Elena a wink.

Squinting into the distance for a second Elena said cautiously. "I was unconscious throughout most of it."

Damon bit back a smile while Enzo was about to say something more, but got interrupted by Hope who ran toward Damon and Elena, shouting and dragging Hayley along with her.

She had been trying to be patient, but after a few minutes she decided that waiting for her turn to greet Damon and Elena was taking much too long.

"That's my Mom!"

"Or _you_ could tell Bonnie-" Enzo started, struck by the idea, but Hope didn't seem to notice he was talking to her.

"My Mommy's here! You're here! Everyone is here!" Hope continued her happy assessment of the situation until she ran out of breath.

"Which is quite a bit of a story," Liz observed with a smile, giving both Damon and Elena a long hug, followed by Caroline hugging Elena and tapping Damon on the shoulder with a thin smile that he mirrored.

"We finished the spell _minutes_ ago! If you had gotten here an hour later you would've basically become an unmarried widow!" Caroline exclaimed, beaming at Elena and Bonnie wondered if Caroline really thought it was a good joke or was just so happy about the more than fortunate turn of events that she wasn't in perfect control of what she was saying.

"Not that she ever was," Bonnie thought, glancing at her grandmother who shared a smile with her.

Elena stiffened a little, not finding Caroline's words funny at all, but before her mood could be ruined, Bonnie interfered.

"And here is the architect of this success," she interjected, gesturing to Elijah and the interruption prevented Damon from correcting Caroline that Elena was, in fact, married.

"That' s much of an exaggeration," Elijah said with a brief smile.

"Uncle Elijah found that spell with which we erased all magic!" Hope explained, making wide, sweeping motions with her hands to illustrate the process. "There is no magic left in the whole entire world!"

Damon blinked rapidly in astonishment. The idea sounded decidedly too good to be true.

"That's... amazing," Elena said, stunned, not sure what to make out of this revelation.

"And now everyone is human," Caroline added with a sigh.

"When we erased magic, Kai's spell got erased too," Bonnie said, glancing at Freya and Elijah who seemed rather amused by the expression on Damon's face.

"Thank you," Elena said with a small gasp, beginning to understand what had happened.

"I had my own reasons, but I'm very glad if that spell could prove of help to you as well. It _is_ very nice to see you," Elijah nodded with a smile.

"How did you even manage that?" Elena asked incredulously, glancing at Damon who was clearly trying to formulate an appropriate 'thank you' response, his forehead creased in a thoughtful expression.

"Well, not having too many skeptics around definitely helped," Elijah said, a ghost of a smile flitting across his face as he shifted his eyes to Damon.

Damon smirked briefly."With all the magic gone, conveniently, we'll never find out the truth about _that_ elixir anyway," he observed matter-of-factly, but then the humor faded off his expression. He was silent for a second and then said under his breath, in an utterly serious voice. "Thank you."

Elijah nodded once and smiled at them both again before turning around.

"As always, I'm the one who risked and lost most in the course of the entire process, but Elijah is the one collecting congratulations and gratitudes," Klaus spoke in a loud voice and Caroline bit her lip to keep herself from chuckling at the petulant undertones in his voice.

"Ah yes." Elijah half-turned toward Damon and Elena again. "Let's not forget, my brother's contribution. I can't stress its significance enough. He graciously allowed for the spell to happen."

Hayley snorted. "And what is it that you lost? Because I just lost five years of my life. Do you perhaps want to talk about that?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest and giving Klaus a pointed look.

Klaus chuckled humorlessly. "I don't know how many times should I remind everyone that what happened with you was-"

"Collateral damage," Hayley cut in, saying the words in unison with Klaus and the sound of their voices colliding made Hope giggle. Hayley's eyes darted to her daughter who ran back into her arms. "You do know it's a stupid excuse, right?" Hayley asked, looking at Klaus while wrapping her arms around Hope, but there was something in her expression that suddenly made Klaus realize that she wasn't headed into an argument. "But..." Hayley pressed a kiss to the top of Hope's head and exchanged a grin with her before narrowing her eyes at Klaus. "I'm going to cut you some slack for somehow becoming the dad of the year in the meantime," she muttered with a sigh in an exaggeratedly dubious voice.

Klaus blinked, taken aback by the words. Caroline shot him a triumphant look, glad that it turned out she was right and that everything was going to be alright. It didn't seem that Hayley was readying herself for a custody battle of any sort.

"And where would dear Jackson be?" Klaus asked, changing the subject and Caroline's smile turned into a frown.

She made a mental note to investigate if ruining the mood was an obligatory item on Klaus' daily to-do list.

"By the way, is Jackson his first name or his last name?" Klaus went on, glancing at Elijah who made a point of ignoring him.

"He went to check on his grandma," Hayley replied dryly.

Klaus seemed amused. "His grandma?"

Elijah glanced up at the sky. "Niklaus, could you perhaps find yourself something else to entertain your human self with?" He proposed with a trace of exasperation in his voice.

"I'm not entertained by this at all," Klaus said with a shrug. "Just concerned about the kind of people my daughter will have to be acquainted with. I don't think anyone in that family graduated from college."

Hayley widened her eyes at him and then looked to Elijah and Freya. "Is he serious?"

"Not to be rude, but whoever Jackson is, can we postpone defending his family's honor until tomorrow?" Caroline asked in a perfectly polite voice, ignoring Klaus' smirk.

Only after she'd said the words she realized that he was going to think she was taking his side... or something like that, while she really just wanted for this conversation to be over, so they could all go inside.

Taking advantage of the interruption, Stefan walked past the Mikaelsons' gathering, finally making his way to Damon and Elena.

He'd been standing motionlessly for the last few minutes, just watching the scene that seemed to be happening in a world he had thought was long gone, impossible.

Rebekah watched Stefan stop in front of Damon and Elena and although she couldn't see his facial expression, she was sure it probably didn't differ much from theirs and when they fell into each other's arms she smiled and then shifted her gaze to her own brothers thinking how far they all had come. From dark, cold, lonely nights to heartfelt family reunions. From the eye of the storm to the calm.

"I'd say it's nice to see you again, but in fact there was no stopping you from tagging along for the last few days, so..." Damon said once he regained his composure after embracing Stefan for a few seconds with the faintest smile that Elena had no problems deciphering for being what it was, one of the happiest smiles ever.

Stefan chuckled briefly. "Got it. I'll make sure to give you some space from now on."

Elena smiled, but then drew a sharp intake of breath when Caroline grasped her arms, clearly struck by a sudden thought.

"Do you need to sit down? Do you need water? Do you need food? Come on, let's get you inside! You need to lie down."

Elena blinked, holding onto Damon's hand when Caroline started dragging her with her. "Why? Why do I have to lie down?" She asked, perplexed.

"Because you're pregnant!" Caroline replied and Elena stopped in her tracks, caught off guard by the announcement being rather loud and... not coming from her in the first place.

"How do you know?" Elena asked, confused.

Damon glanced right and left, as if in search of an explanation. "You haven't been using some weird witchy juju to be spying on us this whole time, have you?"

He exchanged an uncertain look with Elena.

Caroline placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at them, trying to keep amusement out of her voice. "Why? Were you doing anything you wouldn't want _all_ of us to see?"

"Well, for one, we got married, so if you haven't missed the ceremony, all the better," Elena said with a small shrug.

Damon's mouth twitched into a smirk.

"What?" John said out loud the word that Caroline seemed to be struggling to utter, her eyes wide.

Freya bit back a smile, amused by the expression on John's face.

"Wow. You've been busy," Jenna observed, a little stunned, although she had to admit it was hardly the most surprising news she'd received since coming back from the dead.

She glanced at Alaric who just smiled wistfully.

"Congratulations," Isobel said in an uneven, unexpectedly warm voice that made Elena suddenly realize that it sounded eerily similar to hers.

"Thank you," she replied with a smile, smiling even more when Miranda and Grayson also followed Isobel's suit, despite looking a little shaken, which Elena hoped was caused by the fact that they had missed the wedding, not by the fact that it had happened.

"Is this even legal?" John asked matter-of-factly, receiving a quick glare from Damon.

"Who cares?" Caroline cried out, throwing her arms up in the air. "What matters is that we weren't there! How could you get married without me?!"

"And now I'm even more glad you weren't there," Damon grunted and Elena poked him, stifling a laugh.

Caroline narrowed her eyes at him. "If you think I'm going to let go of that you're so wrong."

"We predicted that," Enzo said gleefully, shooting a Bonnie a conspiratorial look that she ignored.

"Unless you want to brainstorm cake flavors with Caroline right now, I suggest we go inside, so we can explain to you how we know about the baby and all," Bonnie offered.

"I was the first to suggest we go inside," Caroline snapped.

Bonnie gave her a questioning look. "Does it matter?"

"No, no, of course not. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters! Not even the fact that Elena got married without us!"

"If that will make you feel any better, we have no problem getting married again," Elena said in a reconciliatory tone, shifting her eyes to Damon who gave her a lop-sided smile.

Elena's gaze lingered on him and then on an impulse she cradled his face in her palms, wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. Damon's arms immediately closed around her. He stroked her back in a reassuring gesture, grimacing briefly when he felt a tremor ran through her. It was going to take them some time, he thought, to believe that everything was going, that everything _was_ alright, that they had outran death, defeated the universe one more time.

Bonnie and Jeremy exchanged a longer look and then signaled for everyone to start going back into the house to give Damon and Elena a moment.

"Are you sure we aren't dreaming?" Damon asked in a muffled voice, his lips pressed to Elena's cheek, his eyes absently following everyone who walked back into the house leaving the door wide open for them.

"I hope not," Elena replied with a broken laugh, tilting her head to the side to press a soft kiss to Damon's cheek.

He smiled and drew back to cup Elena's face in his hands, his forehead falling against hers.

"This is the happiest moment-" Damon whispered, his breath ghosting against Elena's face as he spoke.

Elena made a hushing sound, brushing her fingers against Damon's mouth, returning his smile when she opened her eyes. "Shhh. Don't say it out loud."

xxxdelenaxxx

"And what I'm being charged with?" Kai asked sardonically, still chuckling and apparently finding the entire situation most amusing.

Sarah was standing near the police car with her arms crossed over her chest, watching the officers putting the handcuffs around Kai's wrists while informing him about his rights.

"First degree murder," Sarah replied and Kai's eyes flickered to her, his gaze bright with amusement but there was also something sinister floating underneath that made Sarah shudder, even though she knew he could cause her no harm now that he was human and hopefully soon going to be sentenced to spending the rest of his life in prison.

With a faint, inward smile she thought that Jeremy and she had handled coordinating everything over the phone really well.

"Really?" Kai chortled. "Of whom?"

"Remington Anderson," Sarah replied flatly and for the first time since Kai had woken up with no magic in or around him, his expression turned sincerely confused.

"Who?"

"Remington Anderson," Sarah repeated. "A taxi driver."

Kai's smile faded into a frown, as he apparently attempted searching his memory for what she was talking about. Then the understanding seemed to dawn on him and the amusement in his eyes was swiftly replaced by sheer fury.

Taking a step back when Kai was being pushed inside the police car, Sarah gave him one last sour smile. "Devil in the detail, loopholes and all that."

xxxdelenaxxx

Walking across the house and up the stairs Elena kept looking around as if she was seeing every piece of furniture, every carpet, every picture, every trinket for the first time. Her gaze lingered on the fireplace before Damon swept her into his arms to carry her up the stairs.

"I traveled back and forth in time, Damon. I can do stairs," she said in a mockingly serious tone, wrapping her arms around Damon's neck and trailing purposefully erratic, fervent kisses across his face.

Damon smirked against her lips before kissing her on the mouth. "It's a big house, Elena" he murmured, his lips touching hers as he spoke. "I don't want you to get lost on the way to our bedroom."

Elena laughed when Damon placed her gently on the ground once they were inside their room. He shut the door closed with his foot and turned toward her, tugging her back into her arms.

"Although perhaps we should start with a check-up," he suddenly said, breaking the kiss.

Elena blinked, for a second not sure if it was meant as a joke, but an alert grimace on Damon's face seemed serious enough.

"A check-up?" She asked, perplexed and then chuckled under her breath when Damon clarified that they should go to the hospital to check if everything was alright with the baby.

"First of all, they don't do regular pregnancy check-ups in emergency rooms," Elena explained in an expertly tone, anchoring her hands on Damon's shoulders and backing him against the door.

"No? Not even when people freak out after time travel gone awry?"

Elena shook her head, her eyes sparkling with amusement at Damon retaining a nonplussed expression on his face. "No, not even then. Secondly, we need to schedule an appointment first. Thirdly, I feel totally fine."

"Which may just be due to an adrenaline rush caused by the fact that you're beyond ecstatic I'm not dead," Damon offered in an utterly patient and reasonable tone which made Elena smile against his neck while nuzzling it.

He leaned his head against the door, a lop-sided smile flitting across his face as it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to continue the conversation while Elena seemed determined to distract him from any responsible thoughts.

Reaching out to sift Elena's hair through his fingers, he watched her tilt her head to look up at him. It was almost impossible to believe that seemingly a few moments earlier he'd been preparing himself to die, to never see her again. It seemed so ludicrous now. How could he ever think it possible? Not even death could ever tear them apart.

"An ordinary train ride can be more bumpy than our trip back to the future," Elena argued, running her fingertips across Damon's cheek and despite her tone of voice bordering on playful, Damon could see in her eyes that a part of her was contemplating the same miracle he was thinking about.

It didn't need to be stated out loud, but their every word, every casual gesture felt like the most amazing, important one. They shared a smile, silently acknowledging the shared thought. They had survived. They always survived.

Tucking a few strands of Elena's hair behind her ear, Damon followed Elena's gaze when she glanced around the room prompted by the wind swishing against closed windows.

They had been in this room so many times. Good and bad. In sickness and in health. Happy, sad. Holding each other. Arguing. Worried. Relieved. Breaking up. Making love. And now they were back. Back home. On the verge of a new life, at the beginning of their future.

"I feel fine. We'll call in tomorrow to make a normal appointment," Elena concluded, running her hand through Damon's hair and capturing his upper lip in between hers. "Today I'm just tired."

"Really?" Damon asked, smirking into the kiss.

"I said 'tired', not 'exhausted'," Elena clarified with a chuckle, sliding her hands under his shirt. It felt like yesterday, that moment when she'd done it for the first time. And now it was happening again. Today. Damon smiled. And it'd happen again tomorrow. A lifetime of tomorrows had a fantastic ring to it.

"You?"

"Alive trumps tired," Damon replied, still smiling when they kissed again, discarding of each other's clothes on their way toward the bed.

"I've never asked you yet," Elena said softly, nestling her head into the pillows while holding Damon's face in her hands, brushing her thumbs across his skin in a recurring, tender gesture as if she was still trying to appease a lingering fear, reminding herself and him that they were safe, finally home, away from all the disasters. "Have you ever thought about having kids? I mean, before... us."

Damon smiled, memorizing the look on Elena's face when she'd said the last word. He thought it must've been what her eyes had looked like when she'd said it that night on the phone when he'd been digging another grave and she'd called him to tell him that she loved him. He remembered thinking that her words must've awakened all of the stars, because after Elena's call, the black night surrounding him had turned into the most starry night and that night, when he'd looked up, for the first time he was sure he'd seen heaven, not the sky.

Rolling himself onto his back, Damon gathered Elena into his arms. She rested her cheek on his shoulder, splaying her hand over his chest.

"Not really, I guess. But when it became a possibility with us..." He smiled thoughtfully and Elena smiled too. "I'd never miss out on the crazy adventure that raising kids with you is going to be."

Elena narrowed her eyes at him. "Am I only imagining a hint of sarcasm somewhere in there?"

Damon snorted. "It's not sarcasm. I'm more than looking forward to all of our discussions over self-defense in preschool, grades, lunch boxes, prom dresses and college applications."

Elena raised her eyebrows, trying to keep amusement off her face. "Self-defense in preschool?"

"You know, when someone throws a toy car at you and leaves you no choice but to throw a toy truck at them," Damon explained matter-of-factly and Elena laughed under her breath.

"You're going to be the best dad," she said with a smile and then added on an impulse. "Don't you ever forget that."

It was a happy thought and the words couldn't be more true and yet for a split second they chilled Elena to her bones because for one bizarre moment she felt as if she was saying something she might never have a chance to say at another time.

"I'll write it down and present it to you every time you'll complain about my attitude during parent-teacher conferences," Damon replied, his voice brushing away the abstract anxiety that had briefly overcome Elena. "On that note, you never told me what you were thinking about during that meeting with Jeremy's teacher? In the chemistry lab? When you zoned out?"

Elena's forehead wrinkled in thought and after a moment she laughed, remembering.

"I'm not telling you," she said in a resolute tone, pulling Damon's face down for a sultry kiss. "But I can show you," she added in a whisper, giggling under her breath when Damon narrowed his eyes at her in a roguish smile.

"And tomorrow I want to dance with you by our fireplace," Elena whispered breathlessly in between heated, intoxicating kisses, their embrace impossible to break.

"Why wait until tomorrow?" Damon asked in a matching tone, smirking.

Elena smiled back, but stopped him from sliding off the bed. "Because we have tomorrow," she said with a happy grin and Damon decided not to argue when she crashed her mouth against his in a fiery kiss.

xxxdelenaxxx

"You can't sleep? After such a day?" Rebekah asked, walking into the room and leaning against the couch across from Stefan who looked up at her from above the glass he was holding in his hand.

"I'm just... enjoying the moment," Stefan replied with a faint smile, watching Rebekah sit next to him.

"Yeah, it's been pretty crowded around here. No quiet moments to enjoy during the day," she agreed with a sigh.

Stefan snorted soundlessly. "Actually, I don't mind. I'm not enjoying the tranquility. I'm enjoying this one amazing moment in time when everything seems to be alright," he said pensively.

Rebekah poured herself a drink and clinked her glass against Stefan's. "When everything _is_ alright," she corrected. "Either way, now that we're all human, one day we're going to die anyway, so whatever happens, is only temporary. Personally, that's my favorite part," she mused, leaning against the back of the couch with a small smile that Stefan returned.

"Thank you for convincing Klaus to do it."

"Well, you did about as much convincing as I did." She shrugged. "Besides, I'm sure he found the idea appealing from the start. Not that he's ever going to admit it.

Stefan nodded slowly, his eyes cast to the floor. "Here we are, having finally plotted our way out of eternity."

"Don't get too dramatic, Stefan. Once upon a time Elena was giving you the cure and you decided not to take it."

Stefan's eyes shifted to Rebekah. "How do you know about that?"

"I know a lot of things," she said with a coy smile that turned thoughtful. "But not everything. Do you still love her?" She blurted out, catching Stefan off guard.

He frowned in confusion, but then a ghost of a smile flickered across his face and Rebekah wasn't sure what to think of it. "Why do you ask?"

"I've been watching you. And this is just something I'm trying to figure out," Rebekah said flatly, but her eyes remained alert and focused.

She stiffened when Stefan replied in a calm, casual voice.

"I'll always love Elena." He paused and looked away for a second before returning his gaze to Rebekah. "I thought you were very fond of that particular differentiation?"

Rebekah squinted, biting back a cautious smile. "So you're not in love with her?"

"Is that an interrogation of some kind?"

"And if it is?"

"Then I'd be happy to know the reason for it."

Hints of humor in Stefan's voice made Rebekah smile in a more open way. "Maybe... I'd like to ask you out," she said in the most careless tone she could muster.

Stefan was silent for a few moments and Rebekah frowned, but then she held her breath when he asked in a low voice.

"Have you ever thought what would've happened if Mikael hadn't found you in Chicago that night?"

"We would've lived happily ever after?" She offered with a half-hearted trace of sarcasm in her voice.

"Nah, you would've probably done something annoying and I would've had to dagger you anyway."

With a grimace, Rebekah straightened up in her seat. Stefan looked over his shoulder.

"Are you so bored as to be eavesdropping on private conversations in the middle of the night?" She asked, narrowing her eyes at Klaus, who strolled into the room and sat down next to her.

"I have to say, I'm disappointed by the lack of any kind of celebration," Klaus said with a shrug, disregarding Rebekah's question. "I stayed for the party, but everyone just went to sleep."

"Why don't _you_ throw a party? We'll bring cupcakes," Stefan offered and Rebekah tossed her hair to the side with a smirk.

"I don't know if I have best memories of throwing parties in this town."

"Really? What about the one during which I saved your life?" Stefan offered offhandedly.

Klaus smiled, but then everyone's attention was turned toward the doorway.

"Daddy! Look what I found!" Hope exclaimed, running into the room with Klaus' phone in her hand.

Rebekah gasped in a theatrical manner. "Miss Mikaelson! Shouldn't you be fast asleep by now?" She asked, squinting.

"Mommy said I don't have to go to sleep tonight," Hope replied gleefully, crawling onto Klaus' lap and lifting the phone for him to look at the screen.

"And you've been questioning _my_ parenting methods," Klaus pointed out, giving Rebekah a look.

"Yeah, staying up late probably ranks somewhere higher than dooming someone to being a wolf for five years," Hayley retorted, leaning against the door frame.

Klaus was about to roll his eyes, but Hope tugged on his arm, making him look at the screen instead.

"It's a real contest! With prizes!" Hope said excitedly, pointing to the information on the screen.

Rebekah craned her neck to look over Klaus' shoulder to see what Hope was showing him.

"It's a Barbie contest," Hope explained, glancing at Rebekah who smiled.

"So you have to dress up? Or dress your dolls?"

Hope shook her head. "No, it's not like that. It's a _knowledge_ contest. On how well you and your team _knows_ Barbie books and movies! Each team has to be made of three people."

"Oh, I see," Rebekah said matter-of-factly, glancing at Stefan and exchanging smiles with him.

"We can totally win!" Hope said happily and then before Klaus or Rebekah had a chance to express their doubts regarding their competency, she added. "Elena, Damon and I."

Rebekah raised her eyebrows. "Damon?" She asked dubiously, although from the expressions on Klaus' and Stefan's faces she presumed she was the only one surprised by the statement.

"Damon's read and watched _all_ the Barbie books and movies!" Hope confirmed in an excited voice and then jumped off Klaus' lap to run to Hayley to show her more contest's details she'd just noticed on the page.

Rebekah gave Stefan a questioning look, trying very hard not to laugh.

"Well, I don't think he did," Stefan said in a low voice, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Hope was out of earshot. "But he will have to now," he added and the three of them laughed.

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena slumped onto the couch to put her shoes on, her eyes drifting to the fireplace that never failed to remind her that she was home. Even in the morning, when there was no fire in it.

Elena smiled to herself. Dancing would have to wait until later, because right after she'd managed to book a doctor's appointment for tomorrow, her parents had asked to take her and Damon for brunch. To get to know that son-in-law everyone was going to envy them, as Grayson had added in a slightly biting tone, quoting, to Elena's amusement, the letter they'd left for her parents.

"Here you are," Miranda said, walking into the living room. "I was trying to convince your dad a late night dinner would've been a better idea, but you know how impatient he is."

"Hi mom," Elena replied, jumping to her feet and running to her. "And that's alright. We're happy to go. Besides, I've slept in enough in my life," she added with a smile.

They hugged for a few seconds and Elena's eyelashes fluttered at the sudden realization how much she'd missed saying the simple 'hi mom' every morning.

"I'm OK, mom," Elena chuckled weakly at Miranda's concerned expression caused by the sight of tears in her eyes. "I just... really missed you," Elena said, biting her lip and Miranda hugged her again.

"I missed you too," she said and they both smiled when after a moment they looked at each other again. "I actually came to ask you," Miranda continued, regaining her composure and smiling in a more casual manner to help them both brush off the sense of sadness and loss that she didn't think they needed to dwell on ever again.

The bad times were in the past now.

"Are you sure you want to go, Elena? Your dad came up with this whole brunch idea, but I started thinking, isn't it too soon? Maybe you're tired? Would you rather stay home?"

"Is it going to be that bad?" Elena asked with an uncertain grimace.

"I hope not," Miranda said smilingly. "But if you don't feel like going out today, that's fine too. Or we could just take Damon out with us," she offered as an afterthought and gave Elena an amused, questioning look when she immediately protested.

"No, I think I'd prefer to monitor that conversation," Elena said firmly and then chuckled under her breath when Grayson joined the discussion as soon as he appeared in the doorway.

"We can promise you it's going to be a polite interrogation."

"Yes, that's what worries me, the interrogation part," Elena said, brushing her hair behind her ears and shifting her eyes between her parents with growing sense of amazement.

The world that had shattered the day her parents had died was now restored and she couldn't believe her luck, couldn't believe that she lived to see the day of having lighthearted conversations with them.

"Are you afraid that I'm going to examine every detail of his education and career history _or_ that your mom's going to talk about how much she liked Matt Donovan?"

With a grimace, Elena squeezed her eyes shut and laughed along with Miranda who shook her head.

"I don't think I'm the one Elena's worried about."

"So it's me, then?" Grayson clarified with mock curiosity. "Do I need a list of topics that are off-limits?"

Elena smiled, but then said softly with a trace of sincere seriousness in her voice. "Just try not to say anything that would make him feel... sad inside."

"Sad inside," Grayson repeated somewhat mockingly and shrugged when Miranda gave him a mildly scolding look.

"He's been through a lot," Elena said softly with a brief grimace. "He hasn't met too many kind people in his life and it's only now that he's opening up and if you say something that hurts him, he'll brush it off with a joke, but it will stay with him and I don't want that, especially not when it comes to you," Elena said earnestly, shifting her eyes between Miranda and Grayson. "I want all of us to be the wonderful family we've always been."

"That's exactly what's going to happen," Miranda said reassuringly, glancing at Grayson who nodded slowly and Elena smiled, the understanding in her parents' eyes reminding her of that sense of safety that had accompanied her growing up.

"Excuse me... could I talk to Elena for a moment?"

Grayson and Miranda turned around.

Elena hesitated for a second at her name being uttered in a way that felt oddly new, as if someone was saying it out loud for the first time.

She looked up and her eyes widened at the sight of Lily taking a few measured steps into the parlor.

Elena drew a breath. "Of course," she said with a quick smile before her parents managed to say that perhaps it'd be better to wait until after they come back in the afternoon.

Giving her parents a reassuring nod, Elena said she'd meet them and Damon outside in a few minutes. Still, she watched them leave with the faintest sense of trepidation. She wasn't sure what to expect from this unexpected conversation, but she couldn't help feeling that from now on only good things were going to be happening to all of them.

Lily was standing rather far away and it didn't look like she intended to take more steps toward her, so without giving it much thought, Elena walked up to her and was a little confused at the startled expression on Lily's face.

"I understand you might be afraid to talk to me," Lily said in a low voice and Elena smiled faintly at the explanation.

"I'm not afraid." Elena shook her head, not sure if it was even possible to put into words that strange sense of closeness that she felt, having noticed all those tiny similarities in Lily's eyes, her stance, her gestures, to what she'd seen in Damon's.

It made it so much easier to read Lily's behavior, to guess what she was thinking now that she was human and seemed to have emotionally started over from that loss she'd suppressed when she'd turned off her humanity almost two hundred years ago.

"I wanted to apologize," Lily said and her eyes shifted to Elena who drew a breath, as if she was waiting for the next line. "I know it's too soon and perhaps it will always be too soon to ask for forgiveness," she added hastily, apparently mistaking Elena's lack of immediate response for a negative reaction. "But-"

"No, no. I'm sorry. I just thought... I wasn't sure what you wanted to say. Damon started a very... memorable conversation like that once and when I said 'good' he asked me to let him finish and then he clarified that he wanted to apologize, but then realized he wasn't sorry," Elena said with a smile that seemed to startle Lily yet again.

"I reckon that conversation didn't go too well after such a start," Lily said cautiously, not sure how to interpret Elena's attitude, even if it seemed sincere.

"Actually, it turned out to be one of the best," Elena replied, her eyes bright.

Lily looked at her, wondering if it was really possible that someone she'd hurt so much could be talking to her so freely, with such a lack of bias, as if they had just met and their relations were a clean slate.

"I wish I could hear more about that, but I doubt Damon is going to share any of his memories with me," she said a little stiffly.

"He will," Elena reassured her softly. "He missed you. So much." Lily blinked rapidly, staring at Elena in wonder, surprised by the words as much as by Elena saying them and saying them in a caring tone of voice. "He just needs time. You were that ray of light in his past that he always carried with him. If he's mad at you, he's mad at you because he loves you."

"Why are you telling me this?" Lily asked in an uneven, sharp voice, a glimmer of tears in her eyes.

Elena took another step toward her. "Because we're family. Because... I love Damon and... because I love him, I love everyone he loves."

At first the words seemed awkward to be said out loud, but at the same time Elena couldn't think of an equivalent that'd be precise enough, because what she said was exactly what she felt.

It used to take an effort to forgive, but everyone she knew had been through so much it seemed senseless to be adding any suffering to the pain that had already been weighing heavily on people's hearts. Acknowledgment of one's wrongdoings seemed enough, especially since every day offered a new chance to start making the right choices.

And she wasn't sure if it was the saddest or the greatest part of growing up, but at some point Elena realized that every day could bring a life-altering change; and she was only too glad to believe in and watch changes for the better happen every day.

xxxdelenaxxx

"I'm only half way through the buttons," Damon said with a smirk, turning around at the sound of the door being pushed open. "So if we have time for a detour-" He stopped in mid-sentence and cleared his throat, proceeding to finishing buttoning his shirt. "I thought it was Elena," he muttered with a brief, strained smile, squinting.

Desmond smiled. "I'm sorry, I should've knocked. Elena is downstairs with her parents," he added and Damon groaned under his breath, turning back toward the wardrobe.

"Great. Way to make a good impression, making everyone wait. What time is it?" Damon asked, grabbing a tie and swiftly putting it on.

He turned around again before Desmond managed to reply. Quickly looking him up and down Damon guessed the reason for the lack of immediate response.

"Were there any clocks in that purgatory of yours?" He asked handing Desmond a watch he'd retrieved from one of the drawers. "By the way, do you think that place disappeared along with all magic? And if it didn't, who is taking care of it now?"

"I always wondered why I was chosen to be there," Desmond said pensively, looking at the watch with a wistful smile that threatened to turn into a frown. But when he looked up there were tears in his eyes. "Thank you," he said, squeezing the watch in his hands and then adding despite a dismissive shrug Damon gave him. "You already gave me more than I had and should've given you."

"This thing is not as expensive as it looks," Damon said with a hint of humor in his voice, pointing to the watch.

Desmond just continued looking at him without a smile, his expression so rueful that Damon was unsure how he should react, what he should say in response to that unbearably deep concern that seemed to emanate from Desmond's eyes.

"I'm sorry," Desmond said in a low, solemn voice, holding Damon's gaze. Damon's brows knitted together and he lightly shook his head to indicate he wasn't sure what Desmond was referring to, but then paused when Desmond continued. "I'm sorry for every day of my absence. For not being there for you. For not protecting you. For not being someone you could always rely on. And I know I'm two centuries too late, but... I'd like to start being your father now."

Damon clenched his jaw, at a loss for words, but he did his best to regain his composure as quickly as possible, because he thought such a speech deserved a reply even if he had no idea what to say.

"I'm not really used to accepting apologies," Damon said after a pause, his voice cracking briefly, so he cleared his throat before continuing. "Especially weird ones like this one." He smiled humorlessly and then grimaced again, a glimpse of panic that Desmond found heartwrenching flashing in his eyes when Desmond took a few more steps toward him. "Especially since I'm not the kind of person anyone should apologize to. I've done too many things wrong."

Desmond's head snapped up and for a second Damon froze, struck by the thought that vanished before it was fully formed, but it struck him almost painfully nonetheless, that look of authority in Desmond's gaze that wasn't hostile or disapproving, but resolute and concerned and it made Damon want to hear what he had to say, not just right now, but on any given subject.

"That's not how it works, Damon," Desmond said with a weak smile and was about to continue, but then after a single knock, the door to the room was pushed open.

"Ah," Bonnie stopped in the doorway, hanging onto the knob as she peered into the room, taking notice of Desmond before looking at Damon. "So you know."

Damon's forehead wrinkled in a frown. "Know what?"

"That you mother is talking with Elena?" Bonnie offered with a hint of a question in her tone, glancing at Desmond once again. "Alone."

Blinking rapidly, Damon stormed out of the room before Desmond managed to reassure him that there was nothing alarming about Lily talking to Elena.

Running down the stairs, Damon saw through the window Miranda and Grayson standing outside with Jeremy and he sighed inwardly imagining what kind of recommendation that warranted, but didn't dwell on the thought too much, more worried about Elena being left alone with Lily.

Only when he neared the living room it occurred to him that instead of coming to tell him about it, Bonnie should've interfered. Unless...

Damon stopped dead in his tracks.

Unless Bonnie had assumed there was nothing to worry about.

Eyes wide, Damon stared at the scene rather befuddled, an uncertain, surprised smile flitting across his face, turning into a brighter one when he made eye-contact with Elena who noticed him in the doorway before she broke the embrace with Lily.

"Look what I got," she called out to him, lifting her hand and Lily turned around, smiling tentatively at the sight of Damon who slowly walked into the room, a suspicious look lingering in his eyes despite Elena's happy grin.

"What is it?" Damon asked unenthusiastically, but then couldn't help but smile when Elena draped a lacy veil over her head.

"I just started making it, so it's not very long, but I could make it longer if Elena would like," Lily explained, stammering a little, Damon's guarded facial expression not putting her very much at ease.

"It's beautiful," Elena repeated what she had said before, this time, giving Damon a meaningful look, but he only grunted in agreement.

Closing her eyes for a second, Lily drew a breath and then spoke up. "I wish we could start anew, as if all that time in between your childhood and now didn't happen, but I know it did, especially these last few days-"

"Years," Damon corrected sharply, ignoring Elena poking him.

Lily nodded with a grimace. "Yes, I know. I'm so sorry about what happened. About that sleeping spell," she added barely above a whisper, shifting her eyes between Elena and Damon who out of the corner of his eye could see the compassionate look on Elena's face, as if she wasn't a victim in this story, as if it was Lily who had suffered more and was in need of sympathy. "I can hardly remember what I was thinking back then," Lily added quietly, scanning the room with unseeing eyes before focusing her attention on Damon and Elena again. "I feel like now I'm back to being the person that I was before... before I died, before I became a vampire. Maybe it's because I'm human again," she shrugged and then added with a derisive smile. "Although I'd prefer to believe it's the result of self-reflection."

"We can start anew," Elena interrupted her gently, with an earnest smile, lacing her hand through Damon's arm and giving him an expectant look that he couldn't ignore.

"Yeah," he muttered non-committally, hoping that would do, but Elena was apparently determined to make this reconciliation as definite as possible. "Yeah, I guess we can," Damon rephrased his agreement, but kept his voice flat.

Elena didn't seem satisfied with his reaction, however Damon still wasn't sure trusting Lily so soon was a good idea. But then his eyes shifted to Elena again and she looked so beautiful and adorable in this white wedding veil made by his mother that for a moment that refused not to linger he started believing that they could all really be a happy family, maybe, one day. Soon.

Damon frowned and he could see Elena's already beaming face despite the fact that he didn't really say anything yet. Then again, he didn't find it surprising that she knew him well enough to know what he was going to say before he said it.

"Fine," Damon grunted, taking Elena's hand in his. "Let's start from scratch. But that includes no embarrassing childhood stories. Today is day one and that's it," he concluded, turning around and heading out of the room before Lily's stunned smile brightened her tear-filled eyes.

Elena gasped. "But I want to hear all the embarrassing childhood stories!" She said with chuckle, glancing at Lily over her shoulder and managing to send her another smile before leaving the room with Damon.

"Are you sure she didn't do anything to you?" Damon asked in a whisper when they got outside, turning toward Elena, cupping her face in his hands and searching her face for any signs of reasons to be worried.

Laughing, Elena covered his hands with hers. "No, she didn't. The fact that she's human and has no magic aside, I think she meant every word and she told me she'd like nothing more than to make up for the lost time, get to know you and be a part of our lives."

"For how many centuries we've been gone again?" Damon asked in a mockingly rational tone and Elena laughed, pressing a quick kiss to his lips before grabbing his hand and pulling him with her to where her parents were waiting for them.

"Desperate much?" Jeremy bit back a smile glancing at Damon's greenish-blue tie before shifting his eyes to Elena's turquoise dress. Elena gave him a confused look. "Fishing for extra points for color coordination?" Jeremy clarified.

Damon narrowed his eyes at Jeremy. Elena stifled a laugh, lacing her fingers with Damon's.

"Are you cold?" Damon asked in a low voice, squeezing Elena's hand tight, her hand feeling a bit cold in his.

Elena shook her head.

"Any final tips?" Grayson asked in a half-humorous way, giving Jeremy a questioning look.

"Don't leave them alone," Jeremy replied after a moment of mock-consideration. "Once they start making out it's very hard getting them to stop."

"Jeremy!" Elena widened her eyes at him, blushing.

Laughing to himself, Jeremy strolled back into the house.

Damon leaned toward Elena and asked in a stage-whisper. "Do you think we can bond with your dad over not finding your brother's jokes funny?"

Suppressing a smile, Elena quickly acknowledged the expression on Grayson's face that was fortunately balanced by the amusement in Miranda's eyes.

"I'd say we find something more uncontroversial to bond over," Elena replied in a matching tone.

They both bolted upright when car keys flew over their heads and would've landed on the ground if Damon didn't catch them.

"Clean, shiny and filled with gas," Enzo said with a wink, appearing next to them. "You're welcome," he turned on his heels, but then glanced at them over his shoulder one more time. "Wrong shade. You're only _almost_ color-coordinated with the car."

xxxdelenaxxx

The ride to the restaurant went better than Damon had expected. Not only it wasn't awkward and stiff, but it actually turned out very pleasant with Grayson asking many matter-of-fact questions concerning the camaro and Miranda commenting on how the town landscape had changed in just a few years.

When they pulled into the parking lot of the Olive Garden it turned out that thanks to Enzo's apparently _very_ comprehensive retelling of everything he knew of their lives, Elena's parents were already aware of the fact that it was their favorite restaurant.

"So how was your wedding?" Miranda asked with a smile once they had sat down inside and the waitress had taken their order.

"Wonderful," Damon replied with a smile. "Bride-wise."

Elena chuckled under her breath, placing her hand over Damon's.

"I wish you were there," she said with a small grimace. "But we're planning on having another wedding here."

"With a much, much more restricted guest list," Damon added wryly.

"This may clash with my wife's idea of a wedding," Grayson pointed out with a trace of amusement in his tone.

"Damon said s restricted list, not a short one," Miranda argued, looking to Damon for support.

"With Caroline in charge of the preparations we'll be lucky to avoid tv coverage," Elena said with a sigh.

"Now I know whom to call," Miranda said with a smile. "Thank you."

They all laughed. The waitress returned with their drinks and Miranda and Grayson exchanged a look when Damon and Elena's hands remained effortlessly intertwined as they reached for their drinks with their free hands.

"Speaking of milestones, what is the plan for the nearest future?" Grayson shifted his eyes between Damon and Elena who looked at each other.

"The baby," Elena said with a smile meant to indicate that the answer was obvious.

"Elena will go back to college and I'll go to work," Damon replied smoothly before Grayson had a chance to broaden the scope of his question.

Damon's tone of voice was so perfectly serious and reasonable that Elena kept herself from smiling not to ruin the effect. Judging from the expression on her father's face she could tell that Grayson both appreciated and was mildly amused by the rehearsed appropriateness of the answer.

"What about you, Damon? You don't want go to college?" Miranda asked in a casual, friendly manner that was gradually ceasing to baffle Damon.

He expected Elena's parents' attitude to be understandably distrustful and unenthusiastic, but somehow they were being curious and predominantly friendly instead.

"We can't both go to college at the same time," Damon went for what he hoped was an acceptable reply that diplomatically omitted the question of whether he was interested in pursuing higher education at all.

But then Grayson leaned back in his chair and with the most unpretentious shrug asked:

"Why not?"

Elena bit her lip, glancing at Damon who blinked a couple of times.

"We'd help you with the baby, of course," Miranda said. "It all can be arranged. There is Jenna. John and Isobel will also be more than happy to help, I'm sure."

Elena's eyes lit up at the words and she wondered if all of her parents might have had a chance to talk in their absence, work out everything that ha dhappened in the past, come to an understanding. That's what she was so hoping for. But before she had a chance to ask about that, Grayson cut in.

"With groceries," He grunted, glancing at Miranda who sighed, slightly narrowing her eyes at him. "I don't think I'm ready to let them help with anything else."

"Honestly, I don't think I'm ready to let John help with groceries," Miranda retorted, eliciting chuckles from everyone.

"Either way, it's all a matter of good management." To Damon's amazement Grayson carried on, not letting go of the subject. "How old are you?" He asked matter-of-factly and then corrected himself. "I mean, how old were you when you died?"

The question was asked in such a natural way that Damon had no choice but to reply in a similar tone despite being more than a little startled by the turn the conversation had taken.

Finally, somewhere between Miranda reassuring him that twenty-four was not too old an age to begin medical studies and Grayson saying that what really mattered was dependability, trustworthiness, exceptional intelligence, quick wit, clear head and sure hand, it occurred to Damon why he was feeling so odd.

It was because Elena's parents were looking at him and talking to him in the exact same way they were looking at and talking to Elena.

"Jeremy says both of you share these qualities, so..." Grayson added, prompted by the stunned silence that had followed his assessment. After a moment of consideration he trailed off with a brief laugh. "And by the look on your faces I'm guessing he's going to kill me for telling you he said it."

Smiling, Elena glanced at Damon who bit back a snort, trying to cover up a sincere sense of wonder in his eyes.

"We'll bring that up at some point," Elena said with a laugh, glancing at everyone to see if she was the only one finding the restaurant humid.

She reached for her glass of water, but after a few sips she was still feeling a little lightheaded.

"I'll be right back," she said, getting up from the table.

Following her with his eyes, Damon started rising to his feet as well. "I'll go with you," he murmured.

With an amused smile, Elena stopped him from standing up. "I'll be right back," she repeated, squeezing Damon's shoulder in a reassuring gesture while passing behind his chair.

She took a few steps away from the table.

Damon drew a breath.

He didn't know how he knew, but the moment he drew a breath he knew that it was the last breath he was going to take.

The last painless breath.

"Elena!"

Her parents voices reached him muffled. They didn't sound real. There was a ringing noise in his ears that made him deaf to his surroundings. He couldn't see anything, blinded by amorphous white and red spots scattered in front of his eyes. He moved instinctively without even realizing it.

He leaped toward Elena, pulled her into his arms a moment after she'd crashed unconscious to the ground.

Someone called an ambulance.

Blinking lights were obscuring his vision. He couldn't tell if Elena's hand was too cold or too warm in his hands. Someone was telling him to let go of her hand. How could they. There was a buzzing sound in his head. A clamor of noises, words that made no sense. He couldn't hear, see anything, anyone. Only her. Only Elena.

"Elena."

He couldn't understand what was happening. He was saying her name. She had to hear him.

Elena's face was paler than he'd ever seen her and he needed to cradle her face in his hands to warm her up. But some strangers wouldn't let him.

The cold hospital hallways were a maze, sickeningly bright, endless.

Devoid of magic.

They were told to wait.

He was waiting, for one last miracle. Just one more. Just one. Just this once. There had to be that one last miracle reserved for them.

But there wasn't.


	33. Chapter 33

A/N: Now that I received my first threat, I feel like I've finally reached Julie's level of writing! Thank you, guys! lol And seriously speaking ^^ Thank you SO MUCH for all the awesome reviews. I appreciate each and every one of them *hugs*

Also, I feel the need to say that I actually did a little research (shocking, I know) for this chapter, or more specifically for this chapter's horrible cliffhanger, so it's not something random I made up.

Last but not least, the next chapter is going to be very, very, very long, so... yes, you guessed it, it's going to be posted in October. Hopefully before Halloween, though ;)

 **Chapter 33**

 _Damon woke up with a start._

 _For a few moments he breathed in and breathed out trying to remember... Some kind of a bad dream... or was it a good dream?... He frowned._

 _Looking to the side, he saw Elena sleeping next to him and suddenly all of his frantic thoughts dispersed and with a sigh of relief, he closed his eyes for a second and leaned over Elena, brushing the backs of his fingers against her cheek._

 _A bad dream, then. Of course. There were no more nightmares to face while awake._

 _Elena stirred in her sleep and smiled a little before her eyes fluttered opened and she turned her head to look at him._

" _Is it time already?" She asked drowsily, stifling a yawn._

 _Her wedding ring sparkled in the sun when she lifted her hand to trace sun rays illuminating tiny grains of dust floating in the air._

 _Gently, Damon pushed a few strands of hair off her forehead. "Time for what, Elena?"_

 _His heart hammering in his chest for no apparent reason, he found himself clinging to the slightest hint of confusion in his own voice._

 _It was only a bad dream._

 _Elena narrowed her eyes at him in an expression meant to convey that she was convinced he was only pretending not to know._

" _Time to wake up," she replied, wrapping her hands around his neck and pulling him down for a kiss._

 _Strangely, when he closed his eyes the entire room seemed to grow dark, as if someone turned off the light surrounding them._

 _With his lips pressed to Elena's, Damon suddenly froze at the odd, chilling realization that she wasn't kissing him back._

 _He opened his eyes with strange, premonitory reluctance and his breath caught in his throat when he saw Elena's face strikingly pale against the crimson pillows, her eyes closed._

" _Elena?"_

 _The texture of the pillows began to change. They started to melt as if they were made out of blood._

 _All of a sudden there was blood everywhere he looked. There were no other shapes or colors and only Elena's face remained paper thin, paper white. Translucent. Disappearing._

 _Damon was stroking Elena's face with his palms, with his fingertips, trying to wake her up, his voice hoarse with panic._

" _Elena!"_

"Sir?"

Damon sat upright with a gasp that seemed to hang onto his breath, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.

The nurse drew back her hand and gave him a small, sad smile, her voice laced with sincere concern.

"You should go home, get some sleep."

Blinking, Damon looked at her for a few moments, his mind refusing to conjure up a coherent memory of the last several hours, dozens of hours, days?... He wouldn't be able to tell.

He didn't want to remember where he was. He didn't want to remember what had happened.

Time had stopped.

He shook his head, mumbling something in reply, his own voice inaudible to him, but the nurse seemed to have heard him, because after a moment of hesitation she left, quietly closing the door behind her.

A dull, piercing, repetitive sound echoed across the small room, tainting the silence. He wondered if he was only imagining it. It seemed to reverberate in his head, making every thought hurt.

Subconsciously, Damon's thumb slowly grazed the back of Elena's hand, clasped in his. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a thin tube inserted in her arm. Round pads on her chest. All of these horrible reminders that she wasn't just sleeping.

He stared at Elena's hand for a longer while, wishing to see it move, willing it to move.

After he stared at her hand long enough, sometimes it looked like her hand was moving, but he soon realized it was only an odd, cruel trick his mind was playing on him.

He leaned down and pressed a feathery-light kiss to Elena's hand before looking up at her pale, motionless face.

It must have also been an illusion, but he was sure he could hear her heartbeat. Her pulse. Her breathing. She was alive. It wasn't the machine that was keeping her alive, no matter what they were saying. She was alive. They didn't know her, they didn't understand. She always survived.

xxxdelenaxxx

"What the hell does that mean?!" Caroline screamed in the middle of the waiting area that to the hospital's personnel's consternation had become permanently crowded with people who had all come in at once two days ago.

There was little space for other people to come in and out, but no one felt like suggesting to remove the group because of the anguished looks on their faces. Even the one blonde girl who wouldn't stop talking looked frightened and bereaved.

"Caroline, you should sit down," Klaus repeated in the same tone as before, glancing at Elijah who was pacing around the area with a phone in his hand, as if the situation could be remedied by calling some old acquaintances in far away countries, as if this entire predicament was a matter of medical knowledge or competency.

And Klaus wasn't sure if it was some superfluous side effect of becoming human or just an inconsequential thought, but he was finding the apparent hopelessness of the situation increasingly bothersome.

"I don't want to sit down!" Caroline exclaimed, her lips so dry they trembled between the words, her eyes avoiding looking at anything that was evoking in her a real sense of fear.

Like Bonnie sitting on the floor with her head in her hands. Like Elena's parents frozen to the spot by the wall with their red-rimmed eyes and shaking hands. Like Stefan, completely motionless, hunched up in a chair next to Rebekah who was shooting him worried glances from above her coffee cup from which she hadn't taken a single sip for three hours.

It felt like it wasn't just Elena who was in a coma. It felt as if they all had fallen into some awful, comatose state.

They had been so close. They had just been about to start living their lives without the darkness and suffering closing in on them at all times. How could something like that happen? Why couldn't they just get a break? Why couldn't everything, for once, be alright?

"I need to talk to that doctor."

She couldn't even remember his name, but surely if she just rushed into one of these slick corridors she'd find him. How could he be not able to tell what was the cause of the state Elena was in?How could he not know when she'd wake up? Caroline gritted her teeth, feeling her hands roll up into fists at the terrifying memory of cold panic rising in her chest like that before. When her mom had gotten ill.

Fuming, Caroline abruptly turned around, but Klaus tugged her back toward him before she managed to walk off anywhere.

"Caroline." Klaus paused, long enough to give her a chance to blink back the tears in her eyes. "He's not going to say anything more right now than what he said ten minutes ago," Klaus said in an even, almost monotonous voice that Caroline wanted to find soothing, but the sight of Jeremy running his hand through his hair and rubbing his forehead over and over again in an involuntary, nervous gesture was making it difficult for her to calm down.

She looked at Isobel and Shane, sitting in a row of chairs by the window, the view obscured by John, walking back and forth, his eyes roaming the empty space, as if in search of someone he could grasp by the arms and demand answers.

Demand hope.

Her eyes briefly met with Freya's who looked as if she was reading her thoughts.

"There must be something we can do," Caroline said in an incredulous tone, her voice faltering to a broken whisper.

There was always something to be done! These last five years, they had mostly come to a standstill, but even that standstill had a temporary vibe to it. There was always hope. There used to always be hope.

"Maybe if we didn't destroy magic-"

She trailed off, her attention momentarily diverted by Isobel storming to her feet and out of the waiting area. Elijah automatically looked up, watching her leave with a thoughtful frown on his face.

"As much as I wouldn't mind proving everyone wrong about that undoubtedly ill-advised decision," Klaus said with a trace of habitual sarcasm in his voice and Caroline's eyes darted back to him. "I don't think in this particular situation we could accomplish with magic anything more than we can without it."

Caroline gave him a somber look trying to feel more resentful than sad, but not quite succeeding.

"At least with magic around..." Caroline whispered through her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut for a second. "When I was vampire, I was strong. Even if it was an illusion. But now even the illusion is gone."

"And because of that now you can at last see the truth."

Caroline shot Klaus an impatient look, but something in his gaze made her realize he wasn't trying to comfort her with empty phrases.

"That you weren't strong because you were a vampire." He smiled briefly, leaning in as if he wanted to tell her the greatest secret. "You were strong because you were you."

xxxdelenaxxx

Having exchanged a longer look with Lily, Desmond left her with Liz and Enzo and then slowly walked into the room and made it all the way across it before Damon seemed to notice him without averting his eyes from Elena.

Desmond looked down at Elena's hand clasped in between Damon's hands and somehow the sight made him reconsider everything he'd wanted to say.

There was no use telling Damon to get some rest or go home. It also made no sense reassuring him that everything would be alright, because the words suddenly felt so painfully empty when confronted with Elena's pale face and Damon's dim gaze.

So he just looked at them and somehow the silence seemed to endow his presence with enough credibility to encourage Damon to speak up first.

"When Elena was asleep, before," Damon spoke in a low, uneven voice, drawing surreptitious, sharp intakes of breath in between the words in order not to stammer. "We'd be meeting in, in dreams. It was just in our imagination, it wasn't real, but we could be together that way, at least in our thoughts. For five years, it was what made those five years endurable. And now-" Damon trailed off and squinted into the distance with a derisive grimace. "Now I close my eyes and there is nothing, only darkness. I can't imagine seeing her, talking to her." He lowered his voice to a toneless whisper. "Now she's asleep even in dreams."

"It's just your exhaustion making it feel that way," Desmond replied immediately with calm resolve. "And even it you can't hear her right now, she can hear you," he repeated what the doctor had said, only with more certainty. "And she wouldn't want to hear you lose hope."

Damon was silent for a longer while.

"It's my fault. She's here, because of me."

"It's nobody's fault," Desmond said reassuringly, but Damon cut him off.

"You don't understand. This is happening to me. She's suffering, because I deserve for this to be happening to me. I made this happen to other people and now this is happening to me. But why is this happening to her?" He added, speaking in a rushed whisper and Desmond drew a breath, beginning to understand what he was saying. "It shouldn't be happening to her. She's the best person I've ever met. She doesn't deserve this."

"This is not how it works, Damon," Desmond interrupted him in turn in a gentle, but decisive tone.

Damon's eyes flickered to him before darting back at Elena, as if he couldn't look away from her for longer than a second.

"So how does it work?" Damon asked in a tired voice not expecting an answer.

"When I died, I kept waiting for that moment when I'd move on," Desmond said pensively after a moment of silence. "I couldn't understand why I was stuck in that place in between. I felt like I lived long enough. I had no one to miss. I only regretted the things that hadn't happened, the things that... I thought couldn't have happened. And yet people came and went, but I was still there. For a hundred and fifty years it all seemed not to make sense." Desmond looked up and smiled weakly. "Until one day you and Elena showed up."

"Everything happens for a reason" Damon said wryly. "Is that it?"

"That's not what I meant."

Desmond rose to his feet and slowly walked up to Damon, briefly placing his hand on his shoulder before leaving the room.

"As long as the story's not over, it can end well."

xxxdelenaxxx

"I just needed some air," Isobel said tonelessly without looking at Shane when he slowly approached her on the stairs near the hospital's back entrance.

"So breathe in," Shane said in a low, matter-of-fact voice that she tried to scrutinize for insincerity, but somehow she couldn't find anything in it that could help her dismiss the advice.

With a frown, Isobel tried to draw a breath, but almost choked on an unexpected sob instead.

"I forgot-" She fell silent, flinching when Shane placed his hand on hers in a soothing gesture.

"Forgot what?" He prompted in such a natural manner that she made an effort to ignore the deeply rooted sense of discomfort evoked by someone trying to understand what she was thinking, how she was feeling. Trying to get to know her.

"How much it hurts to feel," She finished her sentence in a raspy whisper.

"Ah, well." Shane looked straight ahead squinting against the orange sunlight. "It hurts more not to feel, doesn't it?"

"You wouldn't know, would you?" Isobel asked, giving him a questioning look.

"No, not quite literally," Shane said, glancing at her with a flitting, gloomy smile. "But is turning off one's humanity much different from living in denial of one's own emotional demise?"

Isobel's mouth twitched into a brief grimace of understanding as she recalled what Bonnie had said of Shane's past, that he had lost his wife and son. "No, not very different, I guess."

Shane gave her a faint smile. "What are you thinking?" He asked after a pause, tilting his head to the side.

Isobel's eyebrows knitted in a worried frown. "I'm thinking what everyone else is thinking. Could magic save Elena?"

"I don't know," Shane replied honestly, slightly narrowing his eyes in a questioning expression when Isobel gave him a searching look.

"Where did it go? That little girl had a point. How could magic disappear altogether?"

It hadn't occurred to her before, but for some reason it occurred to her now, that if there was a loophole, after all, he might be the person who would know.

"If you were magic, where would you go?" Isobel asked, trying to read the expression on Shane's face, something she used to be so good at, but now it felt like such a useless skill.

She had used to read people to manipulate them. Now she just wanted to see a flicker of hope bright enough to be contagious.

"Excuse me, could I interrupt for a moment?"

Isobel turned her gaze away from Shane when Elijah appeared next to them.

Shane took a step back to walk away and let them talk, but before he did, he answered her question and, oddly, she found his rather evasive reply mysteriously reassuring.

"Somewhere safe."

xxxdelenaxxx

Having taken advantage of her parents engaging in yet another snappy discussion, Hope sneaked out of the main waiting area to go to Elena.

She watched Lily, Desmond, Liz and Enzo stand in front of her room for a longer while before they slowly walked away, meeting Miranda and Grayson half way through the corridor and stopping to talk to them.

At first, Hope found the hospital atmosphere rather overwhelming. A confusing combination of gently preserved tranquility and frantic feverishness often visible in people's eyes, in precise, quick gestures, in how they always appeared to be in a hurry. But after a few hours, when she became fast friends with almost every person she came across, the atmosphere stopped feeling overwhelming to her.

The wall in Elena's room was made out of glass and Hope looked between Elena and Damon for a few moments before she decided to knock and walk in.

It reminded her of a fairy tale, the glass wall and Elena's pale face.

And all fairy tales always ended well.

Her face scrunching up in an effort to knock on the door, but do it in a very quiet way, Hope finally pressed the knob without waiting for an answer.

She wanted to make sure if she could come in, but the strange, heavy silence reigning in the room made her reconsider asking Damon if it was OK for her to come in. She close the door behind her and very quietly climbed on a chair across from Damon, on the other side of Elena's bed.

After a few moments of stealthily, in order not to be intrusive, looking around, Hope leaned forward and mirroring Damon's gesture, she carefully took Elena's hand in her hands.

Neither of them said anything while sitting like that in silence for a very long time.

xxxdelenaxxx

Klaus glanced over his shoulder after leaving Hayley with Jackson, who had appeared in the hospital looking concerned in a straightforward way that Klaus always found rather annoying.

"Somehow most unassuming people often turn out to be most insistent," Klaus said, stopping next to Freya and watching Hayley and Jackson from a far with a critical look in his eyes.

"Is this a loose observation or a warning?" Freya asked flatly, leaning her head against the wall behind her.

"A dating tip," Klaus replied with a brief smirk. "Over the centuries it has come to my attention that my family has too much consideration for those who have little consideration for us."

Freya smiled thinly. "Very tactful of you to talk about such matters in a hospital."

"Shhh. If we'll be quiet, we may hear what they're talking about even without vampire hearing," Klaus said in a stage whisper. "On that note, I actually feel that my hearing has gotten better since the ritual. Maybe it went awry, after all?"

"The ritual? Oh yes. And all the magic disappeared into you and sharpened your senses. It was the secret plan all along."

"Well, not to brag, but the magic would've been safe with me."

Freya snorted humorlessly. She walked off and passed Jackson and Hayley whose conversation seemed to go from friendly to strained within minutes.

"When are you going to come home?" Jackson asked with a grimace of confusion, not sure if he'd understood Hayley correctly.

"When Elena wakes up," Hayley repeated, crossing her arms over her chest, looking at Jackson without blinking as if she was bracing herself for an argument.

"But..." Jackson frowned, not sure how to say what he wanted to say without sounding insensitive, but at the same time his confusion was getting the better of him. "Does anyone know when this is going to happen?"

"Of course not," Hayley said grimly with a sigh.

"Do you even know her? I mean-" he quickly corrected himself noticing a glint in Hayley's eyes that made it clear she wasn't pleased with his tone. "It's awful what happened to her and I hope she'll wake up, but... I thought you didn't know her."

A small, humorless smile flitted across Hayley's face. "I might've threatened her once."

Jackson didn't smile at all, looking at her searchingly, apparently still waiting for an actual explanation.

Hayley drew a breath. "Listen, Jack. My daughter wants to wait until she wakes up, so I'm staying here until she wakes up. Hope said she's her family and everyone my daughter considers her family is my family." Hayley said, looking at him as if she was hoping he'd understand and for a moment he thought he could, but there was an aspect of this situation that wasn't making it all so simple.

"And who am I?"

Hayley gave him a confused look.

"Because I thought we were a family, but it seems that your family is here and you're not missing anyone without me being here. I'm not upset," Jackson added when Hayley opened her mouth to interrupt him. "I'm just... stating the obvious, I guess," he said with a sad grimace and Hayley's heart clenched at the words, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to stopping him when after giving her a long look he turned around and walked away.

xxxdelenaxxx

Evening shadows were gradually obscuring the surroundings and it felt like the sun had gone away during the brief moment Isobel took to turn around.

"I intended to address this at a proper time," Elijah started, "but between the past and now it seems the proper time never came and I know that under the circumstances such matters are of little importance, but I wanted to apologize for my past actions." He looked Isobel straight in the eye with a serious expression on his face.

"I might've never met my daughter if it wasn't for that... turn of events," Isobel said in a low, even tone, a bittersweet smile flitting across her face. "If only all dark moments made way for happy endings."

Her eyes met Elijah's determined gaze.

"Your daughter is a remarkable person. If it was not for her bravery and kindness my family might've never been reunited. I will do what I can to help her," he said in a voice so low that it could easily get lost in the wind and yet so strong it left no room for doubt.

"I can't think of a better way to apologize," Isobel said with a weak smile that Elijah returned.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Nik, this isn't a good idea," Rebekah said with conviction, glancing at Hayley who nodded firmly glad that Rebekah was of the same opinion.

"The optimistic result is that they'll feel offended. The pessimistic one that they'll have you arrested."

Klaus smirked, his eyes lighting up in amusement. "I'm deeply touched that you're so concerned about my possible incarceration, but I can assure you that it is the most unlikely and definitely not likely to be so prompt outcome." He started searching his pockets for a pen and smiled upon finding one.

Rebekah and Hayley exchanged exasperated looks.

"Besides, I have never met anyone who would feel offended by a heartfelt gift."

"Caroline?" Hayley prompted when Caroline marched up to them. "Could you tell him this isn't a good idea?"

"What isn't a good idea?" Caroline echoed with a frown, her thoughts clearly elsewhere.

"He thinks that if he writes a check, the doctors are suddenly going to remember how to wake people up from a coma," Rebekah said in a dark, sardonic tone. "Because they surely don't do that right now on a daily basis merely out of spite."

Caroline looked at her as if she wasn't listening to her with great attention.

Klaus sighed in a theatrical manner. "Let me rephrase my intentions." He opened his checkbook and began writing on one of the pages. "I'm simply going to offer financing a new wing or two in exchange for-"

"We need live coverage."

Klaus trailed off; his, Rebekah's and Hayley's eyes all turning to Caroline at the same time.

"We need magic," Caroline continued, ignoring the looks everyone was giving her. "And magic is, was energy, right? In a way, at least. So now the only energy that we've got is love. And positive thoughts. Lots of positive thoughts!"

"Somehow the check idea is beginning to look more and more reasonable to me," Hayley muttered and Rebekah bit back a brief smile.

Klaus opened his mouth to ask for a clarification, but before he had a chance to do so, Caroline rushed out of the building.

xxxdelenaxxx

He couldn't leave her. He would never leave her. Leaving the room, even for a second felt like an impossibility.

Letting go of Elena's hand caused Damon almost physical pain, but the doctor was rather insistent about the necessity to talk to him, so after a while Damon dragged himself to his feet and left Elena in the room with all of her parents.

The light in the hallway was blinding. He walked with his eyes narrowed, his legs feeling stiff from not getting up much for two days.

When he walked into the doctor's office he suddenly realized that he might be about to hear good news. He hadn't really talked to anyone so far, he was staying with Elena the entire time, so perhaps he'd missed the important developments and conversations. Perhaps they found out what was wrong and now the treatment could be put on the right track. It was only a matter of time and Elena would wake up. He almost smiled to himself thinking how happy she'd be to know that he was giving in to her eternal optimism.

"Needless to say, there are no statistics to speak of," the doctor went on and Damon blinked, not sure how much of what the doctor had said he'd missed.

He didn't even remember the beginning of the conversation, having drifted off into imagining what Elena would say, how she would smile.

He was going to see her smile again soon.

"Such cases are extremely rare." The doctor intertwined his fingers over the papers on his desk, looking at Damon in a way that he found a little strange, but not alarming.

His tired mind seemed to process the words with delay, but Damon was determined to dedicate his full attention to receiving the good news. Because he was going to hear good news. He drew a breath, feeling as if a glimpse of hope just burst in the darkness and was now floating toward him, closer and closer.

"But based on the available evidence, there are some conclusions to be drawn. There were three maybe four similar cases in the last twenty years that I know of." The doctor fell silent for a moment, watching Damon with wary eyes as if he was trying to decide on the best approach. "There are certain legal constraints, of course. Certain... complications to be expected in case... Well." The doctor cleared his throat, feeling a twinge of compassion upon noticing a complete lack of understanding on Damon's face. "I'm not attempting to offer an advice. Or say which choice is a better one. In situations such as this one no choice is a better one. But it is my responsibility to make you aware of this... of this option."

"Option?" Damon asked with a trace of defensive impatience in his voice.

The word choice seemed strange and out of place. He was no longer sure what this conversation was all about. All of a sudden that glimpse of hope that had been almost within his reach earlier now drifted off into oblivion.

"Your wife's condition is critical," the doctor said and the words seemed to trigger a dull, repetitive sound to ring in Damon's ears. "Unfortunately, there's no well-tested path we could follow. A lot depends on her, on her strength. And right now she has to be strong for two."

The doctor's words were hanging in the air like an unfinished sentence, even though there was nothing about his words that sounded unfinished to Damon.

He wasn't sure if he himself prompted the doctor to speak. Or if the doctor himself started to explain the question he was about to ask.

"There's no guarantee this will help, I want to make that clear. But there is a chance that it might."

Once again, Damon felt as if the first few lines had escaped him. The doctor's words made no sense to him.

"I know this is a horrible situation and I'm very sorry. But like I said, this is a question that I have to ask, the decision that you have to make." The doctor exhaled and then added with a compassionate look on his face. "She has a better chance if she'll have to be strong only for herself."


	34. Chapter 34

A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for all of your amazing reviews! And for your patience. I'm afraid it's going to take me equally long to post the next chapter, but at least this time the wait is hopefully going to be less stressful ;)

There are two more chapters left and chapter 37 is going to be the epilogue :)

In other news, the other day I randomly looked up TVD episode titles just to see what the S8 premiere was called and... HAVE YOU SEEN THESE?! Granted I only saw the titles for the first four episodes, but that was enough to make me _cry_. I might have quit watching the show, but I still love it and these titles made me so emotional because somehow they gave me hope that come May 2017 we will get our happy ending. I don't want to be too detailed in case you don't want to be spoiled, so I'll just say that they have S1 quotes as S8 episode titles. Such a lovely idea.

Last but not least, Happy Halloween! :)

 **Chapter 34**

 _Elena took the heart-shaped necklace out of the jewelry box and lifted her hands to put it on. The sun was making tiny gems sparkle and for a few moments she just looked at them, smiling to herself._

 _"Hey you."_

 _Glancing up into the mirror Elena returned Damon's smile and turned to him._

 _"Could you?" She indicated the necklace with another smile._

 _"Absolutely." Damon pushed himself away from the door frame and walked up to her._

 _Out of the corner of her eye Elena saw the orange flames dancing in the fireplace. For a second she wasn't sure in which room they were, especially that when she glanced toward the window the view reminded her of the view from her old house. Even the windowsill looked the same._

 _Damon brushed Elena's hair to one side and after planting a lingering kiss on her neck, clasped the necklace closed and smiled at her when their eyes met in the mirror._

 _"What party are we going to?" Elena asked, snuggling against Damon, covering his hands with hers when he wrapped his arms around her waist._

 _"Elena." Damon narrowed his eyes at her in a playfully scolding expression. "You know where we're going."_

 _"It's not my birthday today, is it?" Elena asked, sincerely uncertain despite a sudden pang of fear._

 _Damon propped his chin on her shoulder and waited for her to look at them in the mirror again._

 _"Elena, today is the day. You know it, right?"_

 _Elena's forehead wrinkled in thought and she flinched when the light in the room began to fade, the sunlight merging with the shadows, the lights outside blinking as if hundreds of cars started passing by just under their windows._

 _"No, Damon, don't say that," she said with a humorless laugh, glancing around in anxiety._

 _"I love you," Damon whispered into her ear and the sounds of passing cars melted into soothing silence._

 _Elena drew a shaky breath and held onto Damon's hands, her fingernails digging into his skin._

 _"I know," she replied in a faltering voice, tears stinging the corners of her eyes._

 _"Then why are we still here?" Damon asked and turned her around in his arms, landscape changing a few times within seconds. Rooms, parties, funerals, road trips blinking in the background before Elena fell against his chest, Damon's hands cupping her face, his eyes boring into hers. "Elena."_

 _She gasped, gusts of wind tugging on her hair, rain, leaves and snow swirling around them, interchangeable_

 _"Don't be afraid."_

 _He kissed her and Elena anchored his hands on his shoulders, clinging to him, kissing him back in abandon._

 _"I'm not afraid," she whispered against his lips, sliding her hands onto his face._

 _Damon's forehead fell onto hers. "So wake up."_

 _Their eyes locked and Elena opened her mouth to reply, but then a shrill laughter broke into their conversation and she stiffened._

 _"Elena."_

 _She tried to look only at Damon, to hear only his voice, but the shadows surrounding them were getting closer and closer. Katherine, Klaus, Mikael, Esther, Silas, Quetsia, Kai, their voices and laughter making the sky rattle, stars falling down like hail._

 _"We have to go, we have to run!" She grabbed Damon's hand._

 _He seemed unaware of the crowd chasing them._

 _"Elena, there's no one there. They are all gone."_

 _"No!" Elena exclaimed, almost angry with him for arguing over this. "They are never gone. Don't you remember? They always come back. Or someone new shows up. Something always happens. Something bad."_

 _Elena's eyes darted to him when Damon's hands touched her face and in an instant they were on the porch, surrounded by the fog, rain pouring down in torrents._

 _"And something good," Damon said earnestly with a warm, mesmerizing smile, looking into her eyes with utmost gentleness and intensity. "Like you, Elena," he said with a smile. "Like our baby. Like us. Don't give up on all that."_

 _"I would never give up on us! I just-" She swallowed, her voice dropping to a whisper. "I just want to hide for a little while. To keep our baby safe."_

 _"That's not the way to do it. That's not like you either. You are the bravest person I know. Elena, please. Come back to me." Damon stroked her cheeks with his thumbs, the roof disappearing from above them, the stars illuminating the rain now pouring down on them. "Wake up."_

xxxdelenaxxx

His eyes were so dry that when Damon stepped outside, the evening wind made him feel as if his eyes were burning.

The view from the hospital's rooftop was obscured by the night, lights from the ground and faded stars not enough to brighten the darkness.

" _I will always choose you."_

Damon squinted into the dark, his mind too tired to conjure up any deliberate thought, but it felt like memories were constantly replaying themselves in his imagination, Elena's words, his own words, coming back to him

He'd never made her a promise he wouldn't keep.

Closing his eyes, Damon tried to concentrate on seeing Elena's face. The most calming sight. The sight that made the world make sense.

Choosing between Elena's life and Donovan's life? Easy.

Choosing between their baby's life and his life? So easy.

Choosing between Elena's life and their baby's life?

That was no choice to be made. He loved them both. He would always choose them both.

"Damon?"

Damon abruptly turned around, but the tired, strained expression on Stefan's face made it clear that nothing had happened, nothing had changed, that he must've simply just followed him here out of concern.

"What happened?" Stefan prompted again when Damon looked away, squinting grimly into the distance. "What did he want to talk to you about?"

The wind swished across the flat surface of the roof, the sound morphing into defeaning silence. Damon stood motionlessly, scanning the dark horizon with unseeing eyes.

"I didn't keep her safe," Damon spoke at last in a hushed voice, almost gritting his teeth in between the words. "I should've protected her better. She wouldn't have lost so much blood. When we were in the past-"

"Damon," Stefan interrupted him and took another step toward him.

Damon trailed off and fell completely silent again as if he hadn't spoken at all.

"This isn't you fault. Had it been your fault, it wouldn't have mattered anyway," Stefan added matter-of-factly and the tone of his voice seemed to shake Damon out of his reverie.

He turned his head to look at him, his gaze clearer. "You're right. Except," Damon drew a sharp, involuntary breath, "that every choice I make hurts Elena. It's always been like that," he added with a confused frown, as if he himself was caught off guard by the conclusion.

"You know that's not true," Stefan replied with the faintest hint of exasperation in his voice.

"It isn't? So it all worked to her advantage? Force-feeding her my blood, convincing her to drink from the vein, talking her into killing the hunter, making her turn off her humanity, tricking her into turning it back on-"

"Saving her life," Stefan cut in again when Damon's voice began growing feverish. Damon's eyes shifted to him and with a flitting, bittersweet, humorless smile Stefan added. "At the end of the day, you were always the one to keep her alive."

It seemed so inconsequential now, all the arguments and discussions, all the fights. Damon looked past Stefan and scanned the dark silhouette of the town he'd spent years loathing until... until it had become his home again.

" _It's Mystic Falls. Nothing bad ever happens here."_

"If Elena wasn't pregnant she might've had a greater chance to wake up," Damon whispered tonelessly, not looking at Stefan who flinched, taken aback by the words.

"What?"

"That's what that doctor said. That's what he wanted to talk about."

Stefan stared at Damon, frozen to the spot, rendered speechless for a few long moments during which he was trying to read from Damon's face the answer to the question he didn't dare to ask.

Or maybe it was just what Damon imagined him to be doing before he looked at him.

Because when he actually did, the expression on Stefan's face was full of sadness and compassion, but there was nothing hesitant about, nothing questioning in his gaze.

"They will be alright. Both of them," Stefan said in a resolute, sure voice. "They're holding on. Elena's holding on. You just have to hold on too."

Damon lifted his gaze from the ground, drawn to the hope-driven certainty in Stefan's voice, which right now seemed more reliable than cold, white sheets of paper with medical results.

But before they had a chance to say anything more, the roof door burst open and Bonnie jumped out of it and rushed toward them.

Damon's eyes widened and for the briefest moment he felt himself thrown to the precipice of hope. But then everything turned bleak again when he saw the anguish in Bonnie's eyes.

xxxdelenaxxx

 _"Elena?"_

 _With a laugh, Elena quickly turned around, pointing to the phone in her hand. "I was just about to call you!" She exclaimed happily, running to Damon and throwing her hands around his neck._

 _The fog rushed across the dark, empty road, for a few moments engulfing them almost completely before dispersing into the summer air._

 _"Does it mean that you memorized my phone number?" Damon asked with a roguish smile._

 _"That too," Elena replied, pressing her smile to his and kissing him a few more times before drawing back. "But I also have you as my number one contact." She lifted her phone for him to see and then frowned at the log-in screen._

 _She entered her pin number but it didn't work. She stared at her phone pensively for a second before hurriedly pushing the memory away. She slid the phone into her pocket with a shrug. "Never mind. We can get another one, right?"_

 _"Right," Damon confirmed with a wink that made Elena laugh, but her smile faded when he added. "As soon as you wake up."_

 _She gave him an impatient look. "Don't start with that again."_

 _She turned around with a huff and narrowed her eyes at him when he appeared right in front of her._

 _"Why not?" Damon asked with a frown._

 _"Is this so bad?" Elena asked, extending her arms and in the next moment they found themselves in the dimly lit living room at the boarding house. "I like our life when it is like this." She looked around the room with a rueful smile._

 _Damon grimaced. "This is not real and you know it."_

 _Elena wrapped her arms around herself, not having a good retort to that._

 _"Elena." Damon walked up to her and lightly tapped her nose smiling when she finally smiled, if only faintly. "It's time to wake up."_

xxxdelenaxxx

He wanted to go see Elena, but there was a part of him that was afraid that seeing her like this would somehow make it all real.

Jeremy stared at the dully gleaming floor, trying to understand why he felt that this time was somehow different than the last fifty times when they were in danger or their lives were falling apart. Was it because it was one too many times? Was it because it happened just when he let go of any fears concerning their future?

"Jeremy."

He didn't expect to hear her voice, so at first he thought that it was just a memory of her that entered his thoughts because he missed her, and knowing that she was gone from his life forever was making everything even worse.

But then he heard his name again, and when he looked up his eyes met Sarah's gaze.

"Sarah?" He uttered her name in a hesitant voice as if he wasn't sure if she wasn't just an apparition. "How are you here?" He asked, wondering just how much time had passed since the last time they had talked on the phone. She must've gotten on a plane right after their last conversation. "Why?" He blurted out, feeling like he needed to know, like he couldn't bear another sad, uncertain thought. He hadn't asked her to come. He didn't expected her to come. They weren't together anymore, were they?

Sarah grimaced and with a weak smile reached out for his hand. "My fiancé's sister is in a hospital. How could I not come?"

xxxdelenaxxx

 _"Jeremy, go upstairs!" Elena ordered after an unsuccessful attempt of shutting the door closed in Damon's face._

 _With a shrug Jeremy walked off._

 _"You are afraid of me," Damon said, exaggerating the accents and giving Elena a crooked smile._

 _"Why are you here?" Elena asked sharply._

 _"Why do you think I'm here?" Damon asked, the tone of his voice changing so rapidly that it sent warm shivers up Elena' spine._

 _He stopped sounding like an intimidating stranger and a familiar, soothing feeling overcame Elena when he took her hands in his, squeezing them tight. "You need to wake up."_

 _"What's going on here?" Jeremy reappeared, his arms crossed over his chest and a frown plastered onto his face._

 _Damon rolled his eyes. "You have the worst timing in fiction and non-fiction alike." Elena opened her mouth to interfere, but Damon cut her off. "However, maybe the make-believe you could be more helpful than the real you usually is, and tell Elena to stop doing what she's been doing for days now."_

 _To Elena's bafflement Jeremy immediately conceded. "I hate to say it, but... Damon's right, Elena. You've got to stop doing that."_

 _"Doing what?" Elena asked with feigned annoyance, her voice shaking. She shook her head and with a grimace of irritation stormed out of the house._

 _And gasped when instead of stepping onto the porch she landed in the middle of Times Square._

 _"Stop hiding," Damon replied and she abruptly turned around to face him. "This is only a dream and we'd been living in dreams for five years too long." He lowered his voice, tugging her to him, the cars swishing past them, colorful screens blinking above. "Come back to us. Come back to me. I'm not really here, but I'm waiting for you. In the real world."_

 _"How come you're not really here? It's you who keeps telling me to wake up," Elena said in an almost tearful voice, glancing at his hands._

 _She wasn't really surprised that even in dreams his touch felt real, his eyes emanating with light. She covered his hands with hers, gripping them tight, clinging to them as if suddenly the ground started vanishing from under her feet and his hands were the only anchor keeping her from falling._

 _Damon smiled at her, inching his lips closer to hers and tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. "It's not me telling you to wake up," he said with a trace of amusement in his voice that turned thoughtful and serious and endlessly warm when he added. "It's you."_

xxxdelenaxxx

"Excuse me, could you please tell me-"

"Matt?"

Matt turned around from the reception desk, his eyes widening in surprise despite having already heard from Tyler about his earlier encounter with Elena's biological parents and Damon's parents, so taken all that into consideration, strange meetings such as this one should be expected.

"Mrs. Gilbert." Matt tried to smile, but the bereaved expression on Miranda's pale face made him only sigh with a compassionate grimace. "Caroline called me. I'm so sorry. Is Elena-" He trailed off, not knowing how to ask the question. "How is she?"

Miranda shook her head. "There's been no change since-" She stopped in mid-sentence when someone ran past them and held her breath when she recognized Bonnie.

They exchanged a quick look with Matt and then rushed to where Bonnie had come from.

"What's going on?" Miranda asked, grasping Grayson's arm, her eyes shifting from his face to Elena's room that looked crowded with people, raised voices blending with the noise of the machine-

Miranda gasped, suddenly realizing what was happening, even before Grayson started answering her question.

"Let's try once again," the doctor's voice resounded from inside the room.

Matt's fingers sank into his police cap. He'd spent the last five years away from Mystic Falls, knowing that Elena was asleep, knowing that he might never see her again, that she was likely to wake up only after his death. But it was a reassuring thought to remember that one day she would wake up, that she was going to get to live her life, be with the people she loved.

And now-

He jolted upright when Damon ran past them, with Stefan and Bonnie close behind.

They stopped by the doorway, while Damon barged inside despite one of the doctor's protests.

"Please, wait outside," the doctor tried to convince Damon to leave, but then everyone's attention was drawn to the impossible, horrifying flat line that appeared on the monitor.

The nurse's eyes flew to the other doctor whose face contorted in a grimace. "Again!"

The words reverberated dully in Damon's head, the sight painfully surreal as he was watching Elena's chest jolt upwards while her face remained completely motionless.

But what was even more surreal was the moment when the word "again" stopped echoing in the room.

It didn't hurt like dying. He had died more than once and the incomprehensible sensation of a bullet ripping through his chest or the cold light penetrating every cell of his brain couldn't even compare to the excruciating pain that crashed over him when someone whispered:

"She is gone."

For a split second Damon stood frozen to the spot, all the memories flashing around him like a tornado of screencaps, pictures swirling around, Elena's voice, Elena's laughter, Elena, Elena!...

" _Promise me this is forever."_

They had given up forever for one lifetime, but this one real lifetime was something they were never going to give up on.

He shouted and screamed and they wanted to drag him away, but he broke free from their well-meant embraces and launched himself toward Elena, tripping over his own feet and dropping to his knees next to the bed, his hands latching onto hers.

And then-

" _So Damon, tell me, what is it that you want?"_

He had been standing in the middle of the road, behind him only the darkness of his past; in front of him someone who had suddenly, mysteriously, in ways he hadn't yet been ready to comprehend, revived in him the notion of a future.

" _I saw it from the moment I first laid my eyes on you."_

"Doctor Halder?"

The nurse's voice was filled with something that could only be described as rushed astonishment and it didn't register with Damon at all what exactly happened, but when he lifted his eyes all he could see was the line that wasn't flat anymore and the commotion restarted until it settled into the previous state of wavering stability.

Damon's eyes flew to Elena's face, but she was still asleep.

Only the doctor's voice sounded beyond soothing when after exchanging half-confused, half-relieved looks with the other doctor and the nurse, he stated in a low, amazed voice.

"She is back."

Damon squeezed Elena's hand in his and leaned down, lightly touching his forehead to her arm.

" _I will never leave you again."_

With no vampire senses he wasn't sure it wasn't just his imagination again, but it seemed to him that Elena's breathing became more steady when he touched her.

Damon looked up at Elena, for a second feeling that if he would look at her long enough she would _have to_ wake up.

And perhaps there was a fraction of truth to that feeling. Perhaps there was a trace of magic in persistence alone. So many times they had been fighting for each other against all odds, against the universe, against hope. They knew every type of not giving up, pathetic, heroic, angry, exhilarating.

Interlacing his fingers with Elena's Damon looked at her, not even noticing when everyone had left the room sharing stupefied comments in hushed voices.

Slowly brushing his thumb back and forth the back of Elena's hand Damon felt all fear leave him, as if a gust of rain-scented wind swished through and cleared all of his thoughts.

" _Just give it a second. It will clear up."_

How could he ever doubt that they would survive this? It was just another obstacle they had to overcome.

"Elena," he whispered, looking at her while pressing a kiss to her hand. "Come back to me," he said, holding his breath because for a few moments he felt with all intensity that no matter the time or space, no matter the labyrinth of dreams in between them, in some way she could always hear him. "I was asleep until we met. You woke me up. And now I want to wake you up. How do I do that? Elena. How do I break into your sleep? Please wake up. Wake up to our life."

xxxdelenaxxx

 _Smiling to herself Elena looked around her room, grabbed her bag, and headed for the door._

 _"And good morning to you too," Damon greeted her as soon as she opened the door. With a huff, Elena tried to shut the door, but Damon's foot was already blocking it and he barged in. "Little miss... I'm on a mission," he said with a crooked smile that turned into a scowl when he added. "On a mission to stay asleep, no matter how not fun that is."_

 _He grabbed Elena's teddy bear and plopped himself onto her bed._

" _Can't we just not talk about it? For one day? For five minutes?" Elena tried when Damon shook his head in response to the first time frame suggested._

" _I'm not talking about this," Damon said with a shrug, placing the plush toy on his chest and pointing to Elena with one of her teddy bear's paws. "You are."_

 _Elena sighed in exasperation and after a moment slumped down onto the bed. "So... instead of just reasoning with myself, I'm imagining you stalking, nagging and bothering me? "Why?" Scooting deeper against the headboard Elena laid down next to Damon._

 _He turned his head to look at her. "Because I can be more persuasive?" Damon offered with a smug grin that made Elena smile._

 _She rolled onto her side and placed her hand under her cheek. Damon mirrored the movement and they smiled at each other._

 _For a few moments they were quiet and then Elena said in a hushed voice._

" _It's not that I don't want to wake up."_

 _Damon inched his face closer to hers and Elena's hand collided with Damon's when they simultaneously lifted their hands to brush Elena's tears off her face._

 _She smiled at him sadly, leaning into his touch , her voice barely audible when she admitted, her lips almost touching his when she spoke._

" _I... don't know how."_

xxxdelenaxxx

Just to think that once upon a time she'd considered this a dream job.

Glancing upwards at more powder being applied to her forehead Caroline clenched her teeth, swallowing the words that would no doubt make her seem rude. She wasn't even sure it was possible not to be rude under the circumstances. Lately everything and everyone annoyed her to some degree. Including Klaus, but he was at least able to find humor in it.

People were bustling around the studio and Caroline felt a pang of envy at the thought that they had never had anyone choke them to death with a pillow, had never inadvertently killed twelve witches.

"That's enough."

Thankfully, someone cut short the make-up ministrations and Caroline exhaled, narrowing her eyes and grimacing briefly when the nearly blinding light hit her.

But they might have lost someone they loved too, she reminded herself, slowly straightening in her seat. That was, sadly, the kind of tragedy that most people could relate to.

"One minute until we're on," the woman sitting across from Caroline gave her an encouraging smile before consulting her notes.

Telling her mom she was going to pursue the broadcast journalism career path felt like such a distant memory to Caroline now. She could not imagine how Klaus was able to stand that tiresome sense of ageless oldness for so long. She doubted that music and museum visits could really remedy that for long. Even now, with only one lifetime to live in sight, she felt as if the remaining years were going to drag.

A tiny red light blinked and Caroline tried to gather her thoughts and concentrate before it would be her turn to talk.

Unless...

"Our special guest today is Ms. Caroline Forbes, the mayor of Mystic Falls, a picturesque town in Virginia that thrived in the last year and became a national sensation thanks to many successful historical and social events that it hosted since Ms. Forbes was elected the youngest mayor the town has ever had." The host finished her introduction with a smile that turned sympathetic when she added. "But she is with us today for a different reason."

Caroline drew a quick breath. Unless everything would turn out alright yet, somehow.

"Yes." Caroline cleared her throat and straightened up in her chair, feeling oddly out of place, the dark silhouettes of people in the audience making her feel like she was talking to an empty room and for a second her heart sank at the thought that no one was actually going to hear what she wanted to say. "I'm here because of my friend, Elena Gilbert."

She looked around the studio once again and then at the point where shadows were merging with the artificial light, Caroline saw Klaus' face, his eyes fixed on her, reminding her she wasn't alone. And in the next moment, all of a sudden, when her eyes adjusted to the light, they also seemed able to break through the darkness and she started seeing faces of people, dozens of sympathetic eyes watching her, listening to her.

"Elena has been through a lot in her life. But despite everything that happened to her, she's always been there for me, for us, for everyone she's ever met." Caroline smiled, the tears gathering in her eyes, but she carried on, feeling less alone with every passing second, with every glimpse of understanding she noticed on someone's face. "She always sees the best in everyone, always looks at the bright side, always finds the silver lining. Sometimes it's _so_ annoying," Caroline said with a broken laugh and burst into tears catching the host a little off guard. "But sometimes this is the only thing that can keep you from going crazy, you know?" The host nodded with an uncertain smile. "She never loses hope. And that's why right now I can't lose hope either. But," Caroline drew a shaky breath, "I don't know what to do anymore. I love planning and organizing, but there is no plan that could fix what happened. So I thought... maybe magic could?"

"Magic?" The host raised her eyebrows in a cautiously questioning expression.

"Yes." A small, bitter smile flitted across Caroline's smile. "Maybe if more people knew about Elena, about what happened to her. If more people were thinking about her, praying for her, wishing her well. Maybe it'd make a difference? Maybe it would help." She glanced at Klaus and mustered a smile, turning to look straight into one of the cameras, a tiny red light gleaming next to it. "That's the kind of magic I want to believe in right now."

xxxdelenaxxx

Bonnie glared at the stubborn green leaves that looked as if they were keeping the flowers from blossoming, as if they were keeping her magic at bay.

She frowned, well knowing that wasn't it, but it seemed easier to think that way.

Raising her hands, Bonnie gently embraced the plant with her palms, her eyes fixed on the glimpses of petals hidden within.

"Bonnie?"

Slowly rolling her hands up into fists Bonnie slowly drew them back and turned around.

"What are you doing?" Shane asked in a low, gentle voice, glancing at the withered flower.

"I don't know," Bonnie replied tonelessly, outstretching her fingers and looking at them with a pensive frown.

"Elena was asleep for five years because of magic. What makes you think that this time magic could save her?"

Bonnie shifted her eyes to Shane, defensive at first, but then she seemed to consider his words.

She grimaced with a stifled sigh. "Because we got used magic messing everything up, magic saving the day. Caroline said it was giving us the illusion of control, but you're right," Bonnie nodded grimly, not looking at him and Shane smiled faintly, because he hadn't spelled his thoughts out yet, but Bonnie seemed to have guessed them anyway. "It's the other way around. It was giving us the illusion of _not_ being in control." She paused and then continued with a distant look. "Do you know how I started being aware of my magic? Other than an occasional prediction here and there, the first time I noticed my magic _do_ anything it was when I'd get angry," Bonnie said in a dreary voice. "And I don't want to be angry anymore. But..." She looked up at Shane with a gloomy grimace. "I can't just give up fighting."

"There's no need," Shane replied simply with a small, compelling smile. "You don't need to be angry to fight for what you believe in, for the people you love. You don't need magic or anger for that."

"Sounds overly idealistic," Bonnie said, biting her lip.

"No, it's actually quite simple. Casual magic. The origins, or rather, the original, bright side of expression, if you please."

Bonnie shook her head with a weak smile. "You're making it up."

"No, I'm not. Ask your grandmother," Shane said, returning her smile. "Do you know what was the first magic spell ever recorded?"

"Si vis amari, ama."

Bonnie and Shane looked to the side where Isobel and Enzo appeared, having come from upstairs.

"Yes." Shane nodded with a small smile. "If you want to be loved, love."

"That's Seneca," Enzo pointed out in flat voice. "I'm pretty sure magic is older than that."

"Was," Shane corrected and Enzo narrowed his eyes at him. "And yes, he's associated with the words, but where the words really came from is the first grimoire."

"This doesn't sound like a spell," Bonnie said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Shane glanced at Isobel who was looking at him intently, as if hoping to hear something she could hold on to. With magic gone, his strange, scholarly optimism felt like the next best thing.

"Because it wasn't," Shane replied, squinting in a pensive smile. "Not until people stopped believing that love could really conquer all." He looked at Enzo and added. "Virgil, I know."

Enzo gave him a thin, humorless smile and then everyone looked at John who started calling for them to come.

xxxdelenaxxx

Tyler thought it was strangely appropriate that the first person he came across in the hospital was Hope and he stared at her for a moment not knowing what to say when she started talking to him after she'd heard that he'd been inquiring about Elena.

"Elena and you went to the same school?" Hope questioned, readjusting her hold on the plush toys in her arms.

"Yes," Tyler confirmed with a small smile, feeling really awkward talking to a kid he'd technically tried to kill before she was even born.

He thought that the only bright spot to this memory was the realization that now it made no sense to him and he couldn't even recall his perfectly logical reasoning from back then.

"And the same preschool?"

"No," Tyler replied, glancing around at the rooms they were passing. "I didn't go to preschool at all," he said, his gaze lingering at one of the rooms, for a second remembering when he'd come back to town to visit his mother.

It seemed that nothing good had ever come from him coming back to Mystic Falls. Maybe it was time to leave for good. Despite living away for quite a while now, he hadn't been thinking of it in such definite terms before, but now it felt like the right decision to make.

"Hope! Here you are. I've been looking for you."

Tyler's head snapped to the side and Hayley also stopped abruptly in her tracks at the sight of him.

"That's Tyler. He's Elena's friend from school, but they didn't go to preschool together." Hope made the introduction that made Hayley's frown turn into a smile. "Elena and Matt went to preschool together."

"Hope has been conducting a full investigation in regard to everyone," Hayley explained with a smile and then added after a pause. "You may add to your notes that Tyler and I went to a... to a survival camp in the Appalachian Mountains together."

Hope's eyes widened in amazement. "A survival camp?" She repeated, clearly impressed.

Tyler smiled tentatively, finding Hayley's apparently goodhearted attitude a little intimidating.

"Where did you get these?" Hayley asked before Hope managed to ask any questions concerning the camp. She pointed to the toys in Hope's arms.

"I asked Uncle Elijah to bring these from the house. This is my bear and this is Elena's bear. I'm going to give both of them to Elena," she added, remembering her errand and breaking into a run before slowing down to a very, very fast walk when Hayley called after her not to run.

xxxdelenaxxx

 _Elena woke up to the sound of voices coming from downstairs and light streaming in through the curtains. With a happy smile she slid her feet into fuzzy slippers, put on a red robe and soundlessly tiptoed to the door, exchanging amused grins with Damon who was already standing near the half-open door._

" _You can't open it!"_

" _I'm not opening it! I'm just going to shake it to hear what's inside."_

" _You can break it that way!"_

" _I think I'm going to open mine," the third voice joined in, but the flippant attitude didn't help to avoid a decisive 'no!' from the other two._

" _We were supposed to wait until morning."_

" _It's morning already!"_

" _Not this morning, silly. Tomorrow morning!"_

 _There was a pause._

" _So why are the presents already here?"_

 _Someone sighed in apparent exasperation caused by the necessity to explain the obvious. "Because Santa can't deliver all the presents on the same night! Do you know how many kids there are in the world?"_

" _How many?"_

" _Hundreds of billions of kids. Hey!" The girl's attention was suddenly drawn to something else._

" _I told you I was only going to shake it to hear-"_

" _You're going to make noise and wake up Mom and Dad!"_

" _That's my present! Give it back!"_

" _I'm going to put it back under the tree."_

" _I want to put it back! It's my present!"_

" _I think I'm going to open mine." The 3-year-old tried again, but the feigned confidence in the girl's voice wasn't really working with her older siblings._

" _No!"_

" _You're going to drop my present. Give it back. Atlanta!"_

" _Denver, stay here. I'm going to put it back."_

" _Why do you have to put it back? It's my present!"_

" _Because I'm going to put it back better, so no one will notice that you moved it."_

" _Which ones are mine?" The youngest girl asked, breaking into the argument._

" _The ones with your name on them."_

 _This didn't seem to help._

" _I don't know which ones are mine!"_

" _Look what you did. Now she's going to cry."_

" _You can't cry! If you cry, you'll make noise!"_

 _Damon and Elena tried very hard not to chortle, but they failed, and their laughter caused the argument downstairs to break off immediately._

 _After a few moments a series of footsteps resounded in the house and Elena held her breath when three little kids appeared in front of her._

" _It was Denver's idea," Atlanta stated before anyone else had a chance to speak._

 _Denver gave her a wide-eyed, stunned look._

" _Could we open the presents today?" The younger girl asked, wrinkling her nose._

" _Yes, but first-" Damon raised his hands to silence the wild cries of joy that his agreement had caused. "But first," he repeated, narrowing his eyes at them in a meaningful expression. "We need to help Mom get out of here, so we all can get out of here and celebrate Christmas in the real world." He flashed them a quick, artificial smile that made them all chuckle._

 _He glanced at Elena with a wink and she blinked, caught off guard by the turn of the conversation._

" _OK," Atlanta and Denver nodded. "How do we do that?"_

 _Elena snorted humorlessly at how Damon's surreal request was met with automatic understanding. That's how it was in dreams. Yet, this dream was different. There was something real about it, something that was giving Elena strength, making her wish to wake up immediately, to make it all happen._

Damon reached out to run the backs of his fingers over Elena's cheek. He gently leaned his head against hers and started talking to her, like he had been doing for the last several days. With his cheek pressed to the top of her head and her hand in his, he paused for a second when he thought one of her fingers had twitched. After a moment he resumed stroking her hand, his hope intact.

No matter how long it would take, they would survive this.

xxxdelenaxxx

Under any other circumstances looking at the hospital premises now would've made Caroline rather proud, but since no breakthrough had happened in the last few days, she was feeling more gloomy and sad every day instead.

The response to her interview was quite overwhelming. Within days, dozens of people started gathering in front of the hospital. It was like a small town in its own right. People were bringing hand-made trinkets, freshly baked cookies. Children were drawing pictures and letters written to Elena were being stored in ever-growing stashes of boxes. Near the trees, there was a quiet space set up for people who wanted to pray or write something down while being here. In the evening, candles and lanterns were being lit and there were literally not a minute when someone would not be here. Even at night, there were always a couple of people keeping watch, tending to the candles and making sure that in the morning everything would be ready to welcome new visitors, each person bringing a little bit more hope into their days that were becoming longer and darker.

On the one hand it might seem that a picnic-like atmosphere wasn't quite appropriate, but as Caroline was watching a group of children sitting on the grass, painting pictures for Elena, running around with colorful balloons with Elena's name on them, she thought that it would all make Elena smile if she was able to see it.

The hospital director wasn't at first too ecstatic about the situation, but contrary to everyone's predictions Klaus' involvement in building a new hospital wing rather helped with his attitude and soon the fact that there were people constantly gathering in front of the hospital, bringing letters and gifts, became a local charity sensation that evoked only the most positive feelings.

With a sigh, Caroline turned around and slowly walked back into the hospital. She felt tears gather in her eyes at the thought how familiar all of these corridors were becoming. Was it how their future would look like from now on? Was it what they had been fighting for? Everything that had happened couldn't possibly lead to only this. It wasn't right.

"It's almost finished."

Caroline stopped walking when she heard Hope's voice. She peeked around the corner where she saw Hope hunched up in a chair, drawing something with abandon while Desmond was watching her with a sad smile.

Lily was sitting next to him with her head on his shoulder and Caroline thought there was something absurd about the fact that mere few weeks she'd still ranked as one of their most menacing enemies.

Nearby, Isobel, Shane, Jenna and Alaric were filling out documents for an application for Elena to be considered to take part in some kind of an experimental therapy led by a professor Elijah had found abroad. Jeremy and Sarah were reading and sorting out letters people were bringing for Elena; Matt, Tyler, Bonnie and Enzo helping with writing thank you notes.

Grayson and Miranda were about to head outside and they gave Caroline weak smiles on their way out. They were all taking shifts welcoming and talking to the visitors. At first Caroline had thought it would've been too demanding a task, but soon it turned out to be a way to stay sane, hopeful and optimistic. It was soothing to know that so many other people also cared about what was happening. In between fighting all the enemies it used to be easy to forget that there were so many good people in the world and it wasn't just them alone, against all the darkness.

"Have you seen Stefan-" Caroline started when Rebekah walked by in front of her, but then waved her hand in a dismissive gesture when she noticed that Stefan was walking right behind her. "Stefan, could you go outside? There are so many people there today. And guess who just showed up. Liam's parents. They heard about Elena on TV and came here all the way from Massachusetts. They think Liam's gone missing and I just don't know what to tell them. We can't tell them he's dead," Caroline said with mirthless grimace. "Can't deal with that right now." She sighed. "Could you talk to them?"

"Yes," Stefan nodded absently and Caroline was glad he at least wasn't objecting to any of her ideas lately even if she doubted he approved of most of them. "But... who is Liam?"

Caroline stared at him for a second and then just rolled her eyes. "Never mind. I'll take care of them. Jeremy said his mom's family from Denver is flying in tonight. Could you go pick them up from the airport?"

"I can go pick them up," Rebekah offered.

"Here. It's ready." Hope's voice broke into their conversation and Caroline noticed that she handed a picture of a small dark-haired boy and a lady in a princess-like dress to Desmond and Lily. "You can keep it until you find that photograph that you lost," Hope said reassuringly and then added after a moment of consideration. "You can even keep it after you find your picture."

"Thank you," Desmond said with a faint, pensive smile, looking down at Hope's rendition of the photograph of Lilian and Damon that Elena had once showed him.

"That'd be great, thanks," Caroline said with a small sigh, giving Rebekah a smile.

There had been so many moments lately when she was catching herself thinking how glad Elena would be to see everyone getting along so well. There was something almost surreal about it.

"One would think we're all one big, loving family," Caroline murmured gloomily when Liz came up to her after Rebekah and Stefan had walked off.

"Perhaps we are," Liz said after a pause, reaching out for Caroline's hand and giving her a small smile that she returned.

xxxdelenaxxx

" _Maybe there is a door hidden somewhere here in the forest?" Atlanta offered, hopping in front of Damon and Elena, while Denver kept rushing forward and then running back to report everything he would manage to notice ahead._

" _Maybe the door is in the sky!" The youngest girl, who was now being carried by Damon exclaimed, pointing to the clouds above._

 _Elena looked at her, wondering what her name was and then smiling to herself at the realization why she didn't know that. They had agreed with Damon on one possible girl name and one boy name, but they hadn't thought of more names yet._

" _Why is it so dark here?" Damon muttered, glancing around and then squeezed Elena's hand, and leaned over to press a kiss to her cheek. "Could you turn on the light?"_

 _Elena blinked._

" _It's your dream, Mom. You can turn on the light if you want to," Denver reassured her and Elena felt tears gather in her eyes every time the children addressed her in that effortless, natural way that was making her believe that an ordinary happy life was not out of reach, that it was all possible, that it would happen one day. Apparently, her subconscious still believed in that. She still believed in that._

 _The fear of bad things that had happened in the past, that could happen in the future, was nothing compared to the smallest chance for a perfect life with Damon and their kids. She wasn't going to give in to fear._

" _You never have."_

 _Elena's eyes darted to Damon when he spoke the words, as if following her inner train of thought._

" _You've never given in to fear, Elena," he repeated and she smiled._

" _I know! What about the crypt?" Atlanta exclaimed, jumping in front of them._

" _Crypt?" The little girl in Damon's arms echoed, obviously confused by the word._

" _It's where dead people live," Denver deadpanned and Atlanta nodded, apparently agreeing with this definition._

 _Chuckling under her breath, Elena looked around, the semi-darkness around them brightening into daylight, sunlight streaming through the branches, illuminating the leaves and the ground._

 _The kids gasped, clearly impressed._

" _I don't think it's the crypt," Damon pointed out, bringing the discussion back on track._

" _Does it even look like a door?" Atlanta asked, walking backwards while shifting her eyes between Damon and Elena. "The way out. Are we sure it's a door?" She inquired matter-of-factly, squinting, while Denver was grabbing her arm every now and then, maneuvering her around the trees into which she would've walked due to not looking where she was going._

" _I wish it was simply a door, but I have a feeling it's more tricky than that," Elena said with a sigh._

" _Not necessarily," Damon said with a shrug. "Some things are true even if at first they seem too good to be true. Like when we first met and Mom thought I was too handsome to be real."_

 _Elena and the children laughed._

" _What about Mom's old house?" Denver proposed, trying to brainstorm other ideas._

" _Yes! Maybe there's a secret passageway under the porch?" Atlanta joined in, but Denver grimaced a little, not finding the hypothesis very convincing._

" _I'm tired," the youngest of the three siblings stifled a yawn, her forehead dropping onto Damon's shoulder._

" _We're on an adventure! You're not supposed to get tired," Atlanta said in a scolding tone, but then fell silent and looked at Elena just like everyone else did._

" _If I don't wake up, none of it will happen," she whispered more to herself than to anyone else and in the next moment the sky started clouding over, the wind picking up. "I have to wake up. I want to."_

 _Elena looked around with unseeing eyes, her forehead creasing in concentration._

 _It started to drizzle and when she looked up, she was alone in the middle of a dark, misty road._

xxxdelenaxxx

After talking to Elijah, Freya and Sheila outside, Hayley returned into the hospital building, her energetic steps slowing down at the sight of Klaus sitting in the waiting area with everyone else, Hope asleep in his arms.

Hayley smiled to herself, and after a moment walked up to them and sat down in an adjacent chair. Reaching out, she ran her hand through Hope's hair and then turned in her seat, leaning the side of her head against the wall.

Klaus glanced up at her.

"Are you planning on going back to New Orleans?" She asked after a pause.

"It depends," Klaus replied carefully, smirking a little when he noticed a glimpse of goodhearted humor in Hayley's eyes.

"Because I was thinking..." Hayley trailed off and drew a breath before continuing, prompted by Klaus raising his eyebrows at her. "I don't want to go back to New Orleans. I never really liked it there. And I think a fresh start is something that would be good for you too, so... I thought maybe we could move somewhere else, somewhere new?"

"We?"

Hayley rolled her eyes. "As in, we could be living on two sides of the same town. This town," she clarified, raising her hand and jingling the keys in her hand at Klaus. "Tyler rented me his house. Hope and I could move in there tomorrow already. I have a feeling Hope would like that. She likes it here," Hayley said, glancing at Hope with a smile. "And by the way," she added before Klaus had a chance to reply, "Tyler actually wanted to give his house to me as an apology for trying to kill me, but I said I'd pay the rent. Anyway. Maybe you could consider this an inspiration and start righting your wrongs?"

Klaus smirked. "I'm afraid I can't start giving houses to people I tried to kill, because I always succeeded."

Hayley gave him a no nonsense look. "You know what I mean."

Hope stirred and sat upright, rubbing her eyes. She smiled when she saw Hayley and gave her a hug.

"I'm going to go check on Elena," Hope said, sliding off Klaus' lap and stifling a few yawns while walking off.

"Is it good parenting, camping in a hospital for weeks?" Hayley asked with a hint of hesitation in her voice, following Hope with her gaze.

"By all means, feel free to tell Hope we're leaving," Klaus said, his lips quirking in a brief smile.

Hayley snorted.

Klaus' expression turned unexpectedly pensive. "It's a good lesson on humanity," he added in a low voice, glancing at a patient passing by, one of many he'd seen in the last several days. Coming and going, a crowd of sad, scared, pain-stricken, frightened, grieving faces. Clinging to hope, losing it, fighting for it.

"Yes." Hayley nodded slowly. "We could all use a repetition lesson on that."

xxxdelenaxxx

 _Elena's own footsteps sounded loud to her in the silence of the night as she walked along the empty road, not sure where it would take her._

 _Time and space worked differently in dreams and so on her way across the road where they had first met with Damon, where they had danced last before her 5-year-long sleep, she could see her entire life flashing in motion pictures on both sides of the road. Happy and tragic memories, moments of courage and fear, wrong and right decisions, hopes and dreams._

 _She thought that she must've been right that a way out was probably concealed, a mystery, a puzzle to figure out._

 _But the twist was, the twist that she realized only now, that it must've been her who had set it up. And somewhere deep inside, she must know a way out._

 _Katherine, Silas, Kai, pain and grief, were just memories she had to live with, but without letting them have any control over her. Not anymore. Those were just evil apparitions. They didn't know a way out. They couldn't and wouldn't stop her from living her life. She wouldn't let fear hold her back._

 _Elena clenched her teeth, blinking back the tears and smiling through them when she stepped onto the bridge._

 _And what place would be better to overcome one's fears than the place where all the fear had been born?_

 _She walked up to the rail and looked down at the river shimmering below._

 _She had died here twice. A part of her had died with her parents that night long time ago. Then on another night she had died here as a human._

 _And then she'd been reborn here when her vampire teenage suicide attempt had ended with Damon saving her, jumping into the water with her._

 _It had happened at dawn and it was just the beginning. Now it was time for long mornings and endless afternoons._

 _Now it was time to finally let the light in for good._

 _Elena climbed onto the rail and waited for her mind to conjure up light surrounding her from all sides. She lifted her hands and was about to jump when someone pulled her away from the rail._

 _She held her breath when she came face to face with Damon, and smiled when he cupped her face in his hands._

 _A few raindrops fell over them from a perfectly blue, cloudless sky._

" _Did you find a way out?" Damon asked, rain intensifying around them._

 _Elena shook her head. "There's no way out. But there is a way in." She placed her hands on either side of Damon's face and smiled. "I want to come home," she whispered against his lips and kissed him._

xxxdelenaxxx

"I'm pretty sure that'd qualify as magic," Damon said in a low voice. "And magic's gone."

The expression on Hope's face was so earnest and hopeful that Damon didn't want to douse her enthusiasm too harshly.

"True love's kiss is not magic," Hope protested. "It's... true love's kiss. It _always_ works in stories. Dad and I read at least three stories in which it worked."

Damon readjusted his hold on Elena's hand, nodding slowly.

Hope leaned over the bed from the other side, giving him an expectant look, and about to continue convincing him to try, but then she noticed Hayley silently calling her to come, so after promising to be back, Hope left the room, closing the door behind her.

For a few minutes Damon was sitting in silence, looking at Elena, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb.

It was ridiculous of course. Then again it was probably less ridiculous than most of the spells that they had come across in their lives.

Standing up and leaning over Elena, Damon lightly brushed her cheek with the backs of his fingers and then pressed a brief, warm kiss to her lips.

He drew back-

Or tried to draw back because suddenly he felt someone touch his face and his eyes snapped open.

And when they did, his wide-eyed stare met Elena's soft gaze.


	35. Chapter 35

A/N: Thank you **so much** for your awesome reviews! I appreciate each and every one of them :]

Seems like lately I only post chapters around holidays ;) Oh well. Hopefully the next chapter will be posted at the beginning of December. And for now... Happy Thanksgiving! :)

 **Chapter 35**

Her lips, her cheeks, her eyelids. Her hair, neck and shoulders. Upper arms, lower arms, palms of her hands.

Elena didn't feel strong enough to laugh, but she couldn't help smiling through her tears when Damon's hands continued roaming all over her in a feverish, abstract attempt to make sure she was alright.

Her hands felt incredibly heavy, too heavy to lift them, but she made the greatest effort and eventually succeeded in placing them on Damon's face. She drew a sharp intake of breath at the surge of exhilaration that the gesture evoked. His skin felt so _real_ under her touch. It wasn't a dream. It really wasn't a dream anymore.

"Damon."

She breathed his name rather than said it. Damon pressed a few impatient kisses to her lips, his forehead falling against hers and he felt her lips tremble against his, like on that unusually warm November evening when they had kissed for the first time.

"Elena." Damon slid his hands into her hair and smiled, glancing over his shoulder to see if the doctors were coming.

He had pressed the button to call them and as much as he didn't want to let go of Elena's hands, didn't want her to ever be out of his sight even for a second, he wanted them to come as fast as possible to run whatever tests they needed to officially declare that this nightmare was over.

Elena looked at Damon with a matching expression that changed only for a second when she gasped the question, struck by a sudden anxious thought.

"Our baby!"

But Damon's reassuring nod and a smile made Elena sigh in relief. She leaned into Damon's touch, his hands still cupping her face.

They gazed at each other, but there was no time to say anything more before the doctors burst into the room and hauled Elena away. Damon ran after them, holding Elena's hand until they all disappeared behind the closed doors.

xxxdelenaxxx

The sound was distant, dull and repetitive at first, but it grew louder and louder and when Stefan shifted his gaze from the floor and saw Hope running toward them across the corridors, he automatically rose to his feet.

Rebekah followed the suit, stealing hesitant, worried glances at Stefan who seemed to hold his breath.

Just like everyone else did until Hope's face came clearly into view and they could all see the grin on her face.

"Elena woke up!" Hope shouted, beaming, and then rushed outside to continue announcing the news, leaving the people in the waiting area stare after her in shock.

For a moment everyone remained perfectly still and quiet until Bonnie, who had been sitting hunched up near the wall jumped to her feet and broke into a run. Stefan followed and then everyone else did just that.

The commotion was rather spectacular, but no one was even capable of realizing whether a single scolding word flew their way as they all dashed across the corridors.

As frustrating as it was not to be able to just zoom to their destination, it also crossed Stefan's mind that there was something strikingly unforgettable about this mad run during which it was paradoxically becoming easier and easier to breathe.

And when they all came to a halt, Stefan thought that he needed no further confirmation that the earth had just turned on its axis and a brand new life had begun, when he saw Damon and Caroline hug while twirling around in the middle of a hospital hallway.

Laughing, Bonnie looked at Stefan who returned her smile, blinking back the tears.

xxxdelenaxxx

 _10 days later_

"Now _that_ is definitely a dream," Elena mumbled without opening her eyes, her cheek snuggled into her favorite pillow, a happy smile tugging on her lips.

She outstretched her hand over the edge of the bed, letting the sunlight skim across her skin. Maybe heightened senses wasn't just a vampire thing? Maybe it was something that could be learned, that could be retrieved, this ability to appreciate every moment, to always feel the warmth of the sun on one's face.

Damon sneaked his arm around Elena's waist, nuzzling her neck before trailing kisses across her shoulder.

"Oh, just the opposite, Elena. I assure you that this is very, very, _very_ real," he said, each word repetition accompanied by a lingering kiss. "Magic is gone. Now it's just us and the reality."

Elena rolled onto her back and opened her eyes. "And that's coming from someone who woke me up with a true love's kiss."

Damon smiled, tracing the lines on Elena's face with his fingertips. "I do like this interpretation."

Elena waggled her finger at him. "Hope's _positive_ that's exactly what happened."

"It _was_ her idea," Damon admitted with a lop-sided smile, tightening his embrace around Elena and gathering her into his arms.

Inching her face closer to his, Elena brushed her lips against Damon's before saying in a low, warm voice. "You did wake me up."

Leaning her head on his shoulder, she draped her hand across his chest and looked up at him.

"I was dreaming about you. About us. And you kept telling me to wake up."

"Well, that wasn't necessarily a dream. I _was_ telling you to wake up," Damon whispered, tracing the contour of Elena's face with his fingertips. "Maybe you heard that."

They exchanged small smiles.

"Or maybe Hope's right and magic is not completely gone." Elena said pensively, tapping Damon's chest before slowly placing her outstretched fingers over his heart.

Smirking, Damon leaned his cheek on the top of her head. "I actually asked your stepdad-to-be about it and-"

"My who?" Elena interrupted him, confused.

"Professor Creepy," Damon clarified and Elena chuckled. "And he said, I quote," Damon squinted, and mimicked Shane's way of speaking which made Elena chuckle again. " _'Tell me, Damon, whenever did something I didn't tell you eventually worked to your disadvantage?'_ "

Elena frowned. "What does it mean?"

"That he's desperate to retain his shady reputation, so Isobel won't realize he's a bore," Damon said with a shrug.

Elena shook her head, biting back a smile. "Speaking of that. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about them dating, but if they're happy." Elena shrugged and then frowned a little. "What time is it?" She looked over her shoulder to reach for her phone and laughed when Damon grabbed her hand mid-air and placed it back on his chest. "Shouldn't we start getting ready?"

"If by ready you mean dressed, then the answer is definitely a no," Damon said with mocking vehemence, slanting his mouth across Elena's in a passionate kiss.

xxxdelenaxxx

"So you don't know what happened to the wedding guests list either?" Alaric asked, glancing at Jeremy before pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"No, I don't. Why? Is it missing?" Jeremy asked, passing butter to Jenna who moved the bread basket closer to Lily and Desmond, exchanging smiles with them.

Alaric snorted under his breath. "It's not missing. It's just..." He turned around and walked up to the table. "It looks like it's been... revised."

Jeremy raised his eyebrows in an amused expression.

"Hi!" Elena said with a smile, stopping abruptly in her tracks upon entering the kitchen. "You're here already."

"Yeah, it's 10 o'clock already," Jeremy retorted, helping himself to a fruit bowl.

Elena gave him a surprised look and glanced at the clock. "Oh. Right."

"Good morning, Elena," Desmond said with a smile that she returned, finding it especially uplifting that Lily also smiled at her.

It seemed like so much had changed in the last few weeks. When she had woken up, everyone had seemed to be on good terms with everyone and this impression had only strengthened when she had finally got home from the hospital a week ago. And she couldn't imagine a better wedding gift than the fact that everyone seemed to be getting along with each other.

"What time do you have the check-up?" Jenna asked, glancing at her phone when she heard a message from Miranda arrive.

"10:30," Elena replied with a smile.

Stefan and Rebekah were standing by the sink and when Rebekah turned around Elena was a little caught off guard by her appearance. She was wearing a flower-patterned dress and a white apron. With immaculate, light make-up and her hair pulled up she looked like a perfect lady of the house overall.

"I prepared breakfast. Hope you don't mind," Rebekah said, placing a cup of steaming coffee in front of Lily. "We just couldn't wait any longer. Have to get going. Lily and I are going to a spa together today," she announced with a sweet smile that made Elena reconsider rejoicing in everyone getting along so well.

There was something undeniably annoying about Rebekah bonding with Lily before she did, which Elena was sure was exactly Rebekah's intention. But then Elena couldn't help an inward smile at the thought that if that was going to be the extent of her problems from now on, then she wasn't going to complain.

"She baked these herself," Jenna said, pointing to the buns.

"They look great," Elena replied with a polite smile, only then noticing that the table was filled with various dishes more resembling an elegant brunch than a quick breakfast at home.

She glanced at Stefan who seemed rather amused.

"I thought I could make seared filet mignon with truffled mushroom ragout for dinner today and a steamed lobster tomorrow," Rebekah continued in a slightly nonchalant voice. "Unless you already have a meal plan for this week?"

Elena blinked, but before she had a chance to reply, Jeremy, Jenna and Alaric burst out laughing.

Desmond and Lily seemed a little confused, so Jeremy explained.

"My sister can't cook."

"Sure she can," Damon said, strolling into the kitchen and wrapping his arm around Elena who pretended to look hurt by Jeremy's assessment.

"Well, she can but she shouldn't," Jenna amended seriously and then chortled.

"Neither should my brother," Stefan added good-humoredly.

Damon was about to reply, but Bonnie who had just appeared in the doorway beat him to it.

"Damon can cook," she countered and Damon gave Stefan a triumphant look. "He knows how to make blueberry pancakes," Bonnie specified and Elena stifled a smile already guessing where this was going. "And blueberry pancakes, and... blueberry pancakes!"

Damon squinted in mock offense while everyone laughed.

"They are good pancakes, though," Bonnie added with a wink and then turned to Damon and Elena. "Hey, listen... Are you in a hurry? I wanted to talk to you for a minute. Just a minute, I promise."

"Of course, Bonnie," Elena replied, wondering what Bonnie might want to talk about, since she seemed a bit nervous, her smile a little sheepish.

"Thank you, Rebekah."

Damon glanced to the side at the sound of Lily's voice and slightly raised his eyebrows noticing the table and Rebekah bustling around in an apron.

"I see you took my advice." Damon shifted his eyes from Rebekah and flashed Stefan an artificial smile before grabbing Elena's hand and turning to leave the kitchen.

Stefan frowned, baffled at first, but then he stifled a snort at the realization what Damon was referring to.

"We'll see you at 12," Elena added, shooting Jeremy a look over her shoulder.

Jeremy's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Have I forgot about something?"

"We're meeting Sarah and you at the notary's office at 12," Elena managed to clarify on her way out.

"And we're meeting Caroline at 11," Bonnie said, giving Jenna a smile.

"I remember." Jenna nodded with a mock-salute. "I already put the color schemes samples in my car and Miranda is booking the cake tasting as we speak."

"Yummy," Damon murmured, turning to Elena and kissing her when they could no longer be seen by those gathered in the kitchen and before Bonnie made to follow them. Elena laughed under her breath.

"Notary's office?" Jeremy repeated, still baffled by Elena's words, but Jenna and Alaric shrugged, signaling that they also didn't know what it was all about.

"What advice?" Rebekah asked, tilting her head to the side and giving Stefan a questioning look.

Stefan squeezed his eyes shut for a second. He was rather hoping Rebekah hadn't picked up on Damon's words.

"He was joking," Stefan said dismissively, taking a seat at the table.

Rebekah narrowed her eyes at him, smirking to herself at Stefan's feeble attempt to avoid answering her question. "Well, I love to laugh. So? What did he mean? What advice?" She gave Stefan an expectant look across the table.

Desmond looked between them, trying to think of something to say to assist Stefan in getting out of his apparent predicament, but Rebekah would have none of it and kept on repeating her question.

"It's just something from his letter to me, the one Damon and Elena had written before they went back in time."

Rebekah crossed her arms over her chest. "You're stalling."

Stefan sighed. "He wrote that I should start dating someone horrible to upset our mother." He glanced at Lily who looked surprised she was suddenly included in the conversation.

Jeremy snickered and Jenna also had a hard time keeping a straight face.

Rebekah was glaring at Stefan for a few seconds before flashing him a smile. Caught off guard by her reaction, Stefan gave her an uncertain look that turned into a smile when she smiled at him again.

"Where are they?"

Everyone jolted in their seats when Caroline stormed in with a rather stormy look on her face.

"You mean Damon and Elena?" Stefan asked, indicating the living room with a nod of his head. "They're talking with Bonnie."

"What happened?" Alaric asked before offering her coffee which she declined.

"I spent _days_ researching newest wedding trends. I put all of my very important mayor duties on hold to organize this wedding. And all I ask for in return is a bit of cooperation. When I ask a question, I want it answered." Caroline huffed in exasperation while everyone looked at her nonplussed.

"What did they do now?" Jeremy asked with a cautious smile, always finding Caroline's irritation rather amusing.

"I sent them a list of days with the weather forecast and they were supposed pick their wedding date. As simple as that." Caroline placed her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. "Do they really think I have time for being funny?" She scanned the room and noticing that everyone was still looking at her questioningly, she clarified. "They picked the only day when it's supposed to rain!"

xxxdelenaxxx

"I was wondering... Have you decided on who you're going to ask to be your best man?" Bonnie finally asked after a few other, vague questions.

Damon gave her a crooked smile. "Worried about that already? Don't worry. We'll pick someone who knows how to dance. Not necessarily while sober, but still."

Elena stifled a smile.

"That's not my concern," Bonnie retorted, squinting. "It's just that... I don't know if you know, but... Enzo's really counting on being your best man. He wouldn't probably show it, but I think deep down he'd be really hurt if you picked someone else. So I just wanted to give you a heads up about that," Bonnie concluded matter-of-factly, straightening up in her seat.

"And you care because?..." Damon prompted in a theatrically casual voice.

Elena lightly poked him with her elbow, but her eyes were laughing and Bonnie shot both Elena and Damon annoyed looks.

"I'm just trying to be nice," Bonnie said grumpily.

"Of course, Bonnie. We get that," Elena said in a reassuring tone and for a second Bonnie thought she wad being serious, but in the next moment Elena and Damon looked so amused that she had to resume glaring at them.

But then their conversation was interrupted by Hope running into the room.

And it was time for Bonnie to look amused when Hope started explaining that she _finally_ needed to talk to Damon about the contest.

"What contest?" Damon asked, glancing at Elena, but it seemed that Elena also didn't know what Hope was talking about.

Bonnie, however, looked alarmingly gleeful. "I'll let you discuss this in peace." Snickering, she rose to her feet. "Freya said it's going to be _live_ on Disney Channel."

"It will be!" Hope confirmed, beaming.

"I don't think I like where this is going," Damon muttered, looking down at the colorful printout that Hope had handed to him.

Leaning her head onto his shoulder, Elena also looked at the page in his hands.

"We have to come up with a name for our team." Hope jumped onto the couch across from Damon and Elena.

Trying very hard not to laugh, Elena glanced up at Damon who was staring at the piece of paper in his hands as if he was still processing what was written on the page.

"Dad said Fire Fairies would be a good name," Hope said after briefly outlining the Barbie contest rules.

Damon squinted while Elena buried her face in his shoulder to keep from laughing. "I bet he did."

xxxdelenaxxx

"These are quite impressive," Enzo said with a smile, tilting his head to the side as he surveyed the white, generously embroidered carriages while walking past them.

"Elijah was of the same opinion until Klaus told him he'd bought not just rented them," Freya said with a brief laugh.

Enzo looked to Elijah who stifled a smile. "I've been meaning to advise my brother on becoming more... frugal now that he cannot compel himself a continuously good financial standing, but Rebekah thinks he should learn this on his own."

"And the hard way," Freya added, exchanging a smile with Elijah. "So." She turned to Enzo, stepping away from the white carriages, silver and gold ornaments sparkling in the sun. "You said you'd need a couple of boats?"

Enzo nodded. "Kayaks, to be precise. For the bachelor's party."

Elijah and Freya glanced at each other in amused confusion.

Enzo smiled. "To be honest, I had a more... traditional party in mind, but when Caroline found out I was in charge of the event, she threatened me the other day, and as a result we collectively decided to hold a less traditional party in the woods. Damon's father came up with the camp idea, Elena's brother added the survival angle, so that's what we're going with."

"Sounds fun," Freya said with a smile. "Just try to avoid broken bones and such. I'm sure a groom with crutches would ruin Caroline's idea of a perfect wedding photoshoot."

They laughed.

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Elena shifted her eyes from the picture in her hands to Damon when she felt him brush her hair off her cheek and tuck it behind her ear.

She leaned into his touch and smiled. "We should've asked for more of these," Elena said, lifting her hand with the ultrasound photo in it. "We have three sets of parents to share it with."

"We'll let them take a look. Most of them are still in the process of earning full rights to the title anyway." Damon gave Elena a smile and turned on the engine.

Amused, Elena shook her head and placed her hand over his on the steering wheel.

"We have to get a new car," she said, glancing around the camaro. "We gave this one to your dad."

"Isn't it like a very human thing, borrowing your parents' car?" Damon quipped, pressing a kiss to the top of Elena's head before pulling out of the parking lot.

"Yes, but probably not everyday and not at the age of 175," Elena argued in a humorous tone.

Damon smiled. "What about field trips?" He asked after a pause, narrowing his eyes at the road. "Is there an age limit for that?"

"Are you talking about your bachelor's party?" Elena asked, amused.

"It wasn't Enzo's idea, that much is certain."

"I think it's a great idea. Personally, I'd prefer a bonfire party in the woods to that topless beach party Caroline's planned," Elena said with a sigh and then laughed when Damon hit the breaks despite the green light in front of them. "I'm kidding," she said with a smile, pressing a kiss to Damon's cheek. "I actually don't know what she's planned," she added as an afterthought in an exaggeratedly worried tone. "She wouldn't tell me."

"That's not a good sign," Damon muttered. Then he widened his eyes at Elena and gave her a mischievous smile. "Let's bail on the parties and sneak out somewhere together instead," he whispered in a husky voice, leaning toward her.

"Sounds tempting," Elena whispered back. "Where are we going?" She asked, noticing that they took the turn in the opposite direction that the road home.

Damon smiled. "I thought a shopping spree would be in order now that we know what our kid looks like," he said, glancing at the picture in Elena's hands.

She leaned her head against the headrest and laughed.

xxxdelenaxxx

Klaus turned off the engine and looked at Caroline whose eyes were fixed on the screen of her phone and she didn't seem to have realized they were not on the road anymore.

Leaning back in his seat, Klaus continued looking at her, patiently waiting for her to notice.

"Why didn't you tell me we were already here?!" Caroline finally exclaimed with a huff, looking around. "And, by the way, why are we here?" She added with a frown.

"I bought this house," Klaus replied in a casual tone causing Caroline to gawk at him.

"You bought the witch house?!"

"The real estate agent didn't mention that," Klaus observed stoically, smirking a little.

"Oh, stop it. You know what I mean. This house was being haunted by a hundred dead witches!"

"I know the history of this house, Caroline." Klaus pushed the door open and stepped out of the car.

Caroline jumped out of it right after him, glancing at the ruined building and shaking her head in bewilderment. "So what kind of a crazy idea is to buy it?"

"Magic is gone, so I'm rather hoping not to be bothered by witch spirits. Besides, I was thinking about tearing down the remnants of the house and building a new one over there, and here... Well. Here there could be a garden, a less morbid alternative to a graveyard. Don't you think?"

"I still don't understand. Why here?"

They walked toward the house in silence for a few moments. Caroline looked around, feeling a reluctant sense of wonder at the thought that there was something cathartic about coming here after all these years. So much had happened here. The early memories of their supernatural struggles were somehow all tied to this place. That's where Bonnie had brought Jeremy back to life. That's where Stefan had kept the coffins hidden.

"To restore life to the ground where life was taken," Klaus finally said, his voice low. Caroline blinked. "I thought that maybe this would be... uplifting."

Caroline looked at him for a longer while, rather amazed by his explanation. "I thought we were going to see the world," she said at last, stifling a smile.

Klaus smiled back at her. "We will. But coming home _is_ the highlight of traveling."

"Hope will be so happy to stay in Mystic Falls," Caroline said softly and then added, tilting up her chin. "Just so you know, Bonnie said I was born to be a stepmother." Then Caroline's smile turned into a frown, and to Klaus' amusement she added. "Which I'm not sure was a compliment now that I think about it, but anyway."

xxxdelenaxxx

"What's going on in here?" Elena asked in a conspiratorial whisper leaning toward Desmond who was standing closest to the door.

Elena had gone to round everyone up for dinner and to her surprise she found Desmond, Grayson, John and Alaric all gathered in the library downstairs.

Desmond smiled. "They are trying to decide who will walk you to the altar."

Elena gave him a surprised look and then laughed a little.

"Elena." John interrupted Grayson mid-sentence when he noticed Elena. "We were just-"

"I know," Elena nodded, amused.

"It's good that you're here, Elena," Grayson said. "We're having a bit of an absurd disagreement here," he said with a grimace.

"Well, I wouldn't call it absurd," Alaric objected.

"Really. So what would you call it?" John asked, shooting him a glare. "Preposterous, perhaps? Because I certainly think it's preposterous that having once destroyed Elena's memories of Damon you would consider yourself the right person to walk her to the altar."

Alaric snarled mirthlessly. "Please. You tried to kill Damon how many times? Twice?"

"I'm Elena's father," John said in a low, almost menacing voice.

"Well, that depends on how you understand the concept of being a parent," Alaric retorted in a steely voice.

"I'm sorry, but there is no point for you to argue about this at all," Grayson cut in with a humorless snort. "Right, Elena?"

Elena shifted her eyes between the three of them."Actually..." She wrapped her arms around herself, her forehead wrinkling. "Caroline says it's a chauvinistic tradition, so..." She trailed off, trying not to laugh at puzzled expressions on all the three men's faces. "I think I'm gonna walk to the altar by myself. But thanks." She shrugged and smiled and turned around, glancing, on her way out of the room, at Desmond who looked as amused as her.

For a longer while no one moved and Grayson, John and Alaric just stared after her in stunned silence.

xxxdelenaxxx

"What is that?" Caroline asked, looking around the living room with wide eyes.

"The reason why I have to go to Portland," Stefan said in a solemn voice. "There's just not enough space in this house anymore."

Caroline laughed, but then darted her eyes from stashes of baby clothes and toys to Stefan. "Wait. What? Portland? You're not really going to Portland, are you?"

"No, actually, I really am going to Portland," Stefan replied with a small smile. "I've never been to Portland."

Caroline shook her head, snorting under her breath. "That's not a good enough reason."

She gave Stefan a seriously questioning look and after a moment he said in a low voice.

"I told Lexi that I'd go to Portland. When we were on our way to the Steven's Quarry. A few minutes before Silas locked me in a box underwater for three months."

Caroline grimaced, the memory making her heart clench despite Stefan's lighthearted voice.

"I'm not wallowing or anything," he reassured her, widening his eyes at her and Caroline laughed softly, tilting her head to the side and listening to him with a faint smile. "It's just that, in that moment I was ready to move on. I was really looking forward to a new start. And so much happened in the meantime, but now, in a way, we're all finally back to that moment. To that moment when we were all supposed to start living our lives. And Portland feels like a symbol of that. I'm not saying I'm going to move there," he added quickly and Caroline laughed again. "I just want to go there, grab a coffee, go for a walk, go to a concert, see a movie."

"What Rebekah has to say about that?" Caroline asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

Stefan smiled. "She hasn't been to Portland either. Yet."

xxxdelenaxxx

"I didn't do it," Elena said, a little amused by the situation, looking the wedding guests list up and down.

"I told you she didn't do it," Bonnie said, giving Jeremy a quick smile.

"Well, lately, I don't know what to expect of whom," Jeremy replied, glancing at Sarah who was sitting next to him, her hand laced through his arm.

"I'm sorry, is he actually complaining about Damon and Stefan giving the two of you this house?" Bonnie asked in a low voice, deliberately looking straight at Sarah and ignoring Jeremy.

Sarah laughed. "He's still in shock. Like me." She sighed, exchanging a smile with Elena.

"As for the list, I didn't cross out anyone," Elena said, placing the piece of paper back on the table.

"I bet Damon did," Jeremy said when Damon walked into the room.

"I did what?" Damon asked, his eyebrows knitting in a questioning expression.

"Did you cross out Matt?" Elena asked with a small smile, picking up the guests list and waving it in the air.

Damon opened his mouth to speak, but Caroline cut him off.

"He didn't cross out Matt. I did," she said, marching into the room and stopping near the table.

Elena and Bonnie widened their eyes at her.

"So much time wasted," Damon said in a theatrically regretful voice. "We should've been friends all along." He gave Caroline a smile.

She narrowed her eyes at him before shifting her eyes to Elena. "And for your information. I crossed out Matt, because he didn't invite us to his wedding."

Elena blinked. "Wait. Matt's married?"

"See?" Caroline threw out her arms in a triumphant gesture.

"He got married a year ago," Bonnie said, looking at Elena. "And he did send me an invitation, but I wasn't in the mood to go."

"He didn't send me an invitation," Caroline insisted.

"He didn't send me an invitation either," Damon joined in. "Besides. We're supposed to listen to everything our wedding planner says."

Elena narrowed her eyes at Damon, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

Caroline clapped her hands. "About that." She turned toward Damon who from her expression immediately understood he was going to regret his words. "We have to do the first rehearsal tomorrow. And the casual clothes rehearsal, the dress-up rehearsal, and the location rehearsal next week."

"You're making all these up," Damon said, squinting.

"I'm a perfectionist. We'll do as many rehearsals as I say we should do," Caroline said sharply and then gave him and Elena cheerful smiles. "I'll see you tomorrow at 9."

xxxdelenaxxx

It was a bright, starry night and Elena couldn't get enough of just looking outside of the bedroom windows. She felt so calm. Calmer than she had ever been. Every moment felt like a gift and she was sure she was never going to lose this feeling. They had one lifetime ahead of them and they were going to make the most of it. Be brave, be happy, be together. Every step of the way.

"Are you going to miss this house?" Damon asked, wrapping his arms around her from behind and resting his chin on the top of her head when Elena leaned her head against his chest.

"I liked it here, but... I'm not going to miss anything as long as we are together," she said with a smile, turning around in Damon's arms and placing her hands on his shoulders. "We'll build a new house, new home somewhere."

Damon nodded, leaning down and brushing his lips against hers.

"I didn't keep my promise," he suddenly said, drawing back, giving Elena a pensive smile, grazing her cheeks with his fingertips.

Elena gave him a confused look.

"I promised you forever and-" Damon started and Elena cut him off with a kiss, immediately guessing what he meant.

"And you did keep your promise," she whispered earnestly against his lips. "I didn't ask you to promise me that we'd live forever." Elena cupped Damon's face in her hands. "I asked you to promise me that we'd love each other forever."

Damon smiled before kissing her again. "That we will."


	36. Chapter 36

A/N: Thank you SO SO SO MUCH for your amazing reviews! :):):)

Did I say the beginning of December? I meant the end. Sorry. OK, I'm aware these kind of jokes aren't even funny anymore, but anyway lol I hope all of you had a beautiful, happy Christmas! And in case I'll be running late with the epilogue (which for a change is not going to be terribly long, so it actually shouldn't take me forever to post it), HAPPY NEW YEAR! May 2017 bring you everything you're wishing for plus a few wonderful surprises :]

 **Chapter 36**

Elena tossed her jacket onto the backseat and then reached out for the seatbelt, but stopped with her hands in mid-air when she noticed the expression on Damon's face.

"What is it?" She asked with an anxious frown, glancing right and left.

They had taken all the necessary precautions to sneak out unseen, but at 6 am there was always a chance someone could have heard them... especially since they had made some noise on the stairs. Elena bit back a smile.

"We forgot about something," Damon muttered, giving Elena serious look.

Elena grimaced, already imagining that they would have to sneak back inside, and then no doubt they would run into someone-

But a lop-sided smile that appeared on Damon's face next made Elena's worried expression turn into an amused one.

"Forgot about this," Damon clarified, cradling her face in his and kissing her.

Elena smiled into the kiss.

"If we don't want to get caught by an angry wedding planner we better get going," she said in a low voice, reluctantly breaking the kiss.

"Don't worry we'll be back tomorrow morning right on time for your bachelorette party and... my weird bachelor field trip," Damon added in a voice that made Elena laugh.

"I think that's really nice of your dad to come up with this idea. He remembered that you've never been camping," Elena offered with a hint of sincere enthusiasm in her voice that made Damon smile.

"Yeah, I'll be sure to be very careful what I say around him from now on." Damon said, turning on the engine. "You'd think he should figure out I'm too old to be a boy scout."

With a smile Elena laced her fingers with Damon's when he reached for her hand.

"What about med school?" Elena asked with a small smile.

Damon snorted mirthlessly. "Your parents were just making conversation."

"Actually, I think they were being pretty serious about it. They mentioned it again yesterday." Elena sighed and then added in a flat voice. "While everyone else was busy making fun of our plans. You know, the fact that two people who can't cook want to open a restaurant," she clarified and they both laughed.

"Yes, speaking of our plans," Damon said with a smirk, turning into the main road.

Elena gave him a questioning look, intrigued. "So where did you say we were going on our secret road trip today?"

Damon widened his eyes at her. "I didn't," he said with a wink in an exaggeratedly secretive voice.

Elena tossed her head backwards with a smile.

xxxdelenaxxx

"They did what?!" Caroline exclaimed and Sarah stifled a smile when Jeremy looked back down at the screen of his phone, ready to simply read the text message from Damon and Elena again. "I heard it the first time!" Caroline interrupted him with an annoyed groan. "I just don't understand why they would bail on their own wedding!"

"The wedding is three days from now and they said they would be back tomorrow morning," Sarah pointed out.

"Exactly," Bonnie agreed, however her stoic expression and calm tone of voice seemed to aggravate Caroline even more. "In other words, they didn't bail on the wedding. They bailed on you." Bonnie gave Caroline a sweet smile that she returned before glaring daggers both at Bonnie and Enzo who was sitting nearby with a smirk on his face.

"Besides, this is technically going to be their second wedding, so it's not like they should be in a great hurry," Enzo added good-humoredly.

"Isn't everything pretty much ready anyway?" Jenna observed in a conciliatory voice.

"If by ready you mean falling apart then yes, it is." Caroline huffed with a frown and then continued with an explanation, because it looked like no one knew what she was talking about. "Did you know that Elena invited," Caroline glanced over her shoulder before lowering her voice to an agitated whisper," that she invited Lily to our Bachelorette party? Who does that?! I mean, would any sane person invite their attempted murderer-turned-mother-in-law, to their Bachelorette party?!"

"Of course not," Jeremy conceded so easily that Bonnie was already expecting something amusing to follow. "But we're not talking about sane people here. We're talking about my sister who has left sanity behind a long time ago, her choice of a husband being a pretty glaring indication of that."

Caroline narrowed her eyes at him, reluctantly letting go of her mood and at last giving in to smiling like everyone else.

"Kind of funny you of all people find this amusing," Enzo stated matter-of-factly. "Aren't you engaged to the most ruthless serial killer in the world's history?"

"Aren't you late for you unsuccessful first date number thirty-two?" Caroline shot him a thoroughly unamused look extending it to everyone else who looked amused by Enzo's comment. "You know what, I'm just going to go and take a day off from work of any kind and more importantly from all of you," Caroline said in an artificially patient voice before turning on her heels and leaving the room.

"Good. Now we can go back to planning our solitary trip around the world," Enzo said enthusiastically, smoothing out the corners of the map splayed over the table.

Bonnie blinked a few times before arching an eyebrow on him. "You should probably look up the word 'solitary'," she said, sliding the map away from him in one swift movement.

Enzo gave Jenna a pleading look, because Sarah and Jeremy had already started heading for the door, clearly not interested in helping him out.

"What if you get stuck in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by sharks?" Jenna offered. "You might want to have something with you to throw in the water to distract them."

After a moment of mock-consideration Bonnie nodded. "Valid point."

Enzo smiled and slid the map back closer to himself again. "So where will we be going first?"

xxxdelenaxxx

Elena didn't even try to guess what kind of trip Damon had in mind, but she figured that they would need to spend in the car definitely more time than mere 15 minutes that passed between Damon starting the engine in front of the boarding house and turning it off in front of a beautiful house at the outskirts of town, near the forest.

There were a few other houses nearby, but far enough to make room for quite an impressive little garden complete with a couple of trees and rose bushes.

"Where are we?" Elena asked, mesmerized by the sight, the white walls of the house contrasting so perfectly with the bright green grass and red flowers.

Keeping her eyes glued to the house, taking in all the details, wooden engravings on the veranda, a plush swing, white and red curtains in the windows, Elena suddenly stopped abruptly in her tracks in front of the mailbox, clearly startled by something.

The mailbox was sparkling in the sun and Elena lifted her hand to touch the silver letters that drew her attention:

 _E & D Salvatore_

"Yeah, I did that before the whole real dad reveal situation," Damon said with an artificially sour smile. "Although I'm thinking about explaining to him why I may not be changing the name, after all-"

"Is that-" Elena interrupted him in a faltering voice, but then cut herself off and with a broken smile ran across the garden and into the house after letting her hand linger on the doorknob long enough for Damon to catch up.

Slowly, Damon closed the door behind them while keeping his eyes fixed on Elena who kept looking around the cozy living room with amazement that reminded Damon of the expression on her face when she had walked into the boarding house's parlor for the first time.

At first everything looked simply perfect, like a catalog picture of the loveliest house. But then Elena started noticing all the details too and that caused tears to gather in her eyes, blurring her vision, making her laugh.

The furniture was exactly like she had imagined it to be in their dream house in which they had been meeting in her five-year-long sleep. The carpet looked like a brand new copy of the carpet from the boarding house, the fireplace and the couches bringing back the best memories along with all the pictures on display. She and Jeremy on a Christmas morning. She with Bonnie and Caroline at a costume party in elementary school. Pictures with her parents, with Jenna. Pictures of their summer together.

"Damon, when did you do all this?" Unable to stop grinning, Elena shifted her gaze from the photographs to him.

"You haven't seen all of it yet," Damon replied with a crooked smile, grabbing Elena's hand and taking her on a tour around the house.

Intertwining her fingers with his, Elena peeked into a guest room downstairs, green curtains framing the view of the garden outside in a quite picturesque way.

A round wooden table at the center of the dining room looked so welcoming with a porcelain coffee set in the middle of it. When Elena looked closer, she noticed that the hand-painted patterns on the coffee cups weren't accidental. Instead, each cup featured a different place or a scene, from Elena's old house, through the camaro on the road, to the fireplace in the boarding house with two silhouettes in front of it.

"How is this possible?" Elena asked, taking one of the cups in her hand and tracing every detail with her fingertips.

"It's called personalization and shops accept orders online these days," Damon said with a wink on their way through the kitchen which looked both pristine and cozy, the effect Elena could not wait to analyze further.

"I mean, how did you organize, how did you prepare all that in just a few days?" Elena asked with a smile, stopping in the middle of the stairs to look down.

The lamps near the door looked like lanterns, there were special spots for mail and keys on the cabinet in the hallway, and above the cabinet there was a picture she couldn't see from the stairs, but in a second she realized it was only an empty frame, with no picture in it. Yet. She smiled.

"I had more time than that, Elena," Damon said with a pensive smile that brightened at the sight of Elena's eyes widening when they entered the first room upstairs.

The pastel-colored walls made daylight look softer as it was streaming through the windows, illuminating the crib, the white lace-rimmed fabric surrounding it, the train track on the floor, countless books and plush toys on the shelves.

"This was done recently, but as for the rest of the house..." Damon walked up to Elena who was looking around the room with teary eyes. "I had five years to do it," he reminded her under his breath, his voice ghosting over Elena's skin when he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and rested his chin on her shoulder.

Apart from their bittersweet dream-like meetings, building and furnishing this house made it possible for him to survive those five cursed years of Elena being asleep. At times, for a few minutes a day while he was cutting the carpets or assembling wardrobes, he could imagine that she was simply at school or at work and could walk in at any moment, throw her arms around his neck, kiss him, and render it all real.

Elena tilted her head to the side, pressing her cheek to his. "It's perfect."

Damon smiled. And now at last it was. Now it was all real. He brushed several lingering kisses across Elena's cheek.

"When we were meeting in my sleep I thought you were asking me all these questions about furniture and color preferences just to distract me." She covered Damon's hands with hers, glancing up at him.

Damon shook his head with a fleeting grimace. "I was having hot imaginary make-out sessions with you to distract you. Interior design questions were strictly research."

With a laugh, Elena turned around in his arms. "Speaking of..." She clasped her hands behind his neck and narrowed her eyes at him. "Which way is our bedroom?"

Craning her neck, Elena pretended to glance into the hallway and then laughed when Damon gently swept her into his arms.

"Luckily for you, trying out the bed is part of your private house tour today," he said in a low, husky voice, briefly narrowing his eyes at Elena in a roguish smile.

Elena chuckled. "I have a feeling this is going to be the best open house I've ever been to," she said, surveying the photographs in the hallway on their way to the bedroom.

"Be sure to mention that in the satisfaction survey," Damon said, capturing Elena's smiling lips in a kiss and kissing her while slowly lowering her onto the bed.

When they drew back to catch their breaths, Elena took a look around.

"This is beautiful," she said with a smile, her eyes shifting from the soft carpet, to the dark cherry cabinets, elegant wardrobe, gauze curtains and the books on the nightstands. "And it feels like home already," she whispered, cupping Damon's face in her hands when he sat in the middle of the bed next to her.

He leaned into her touch and with his eyes closed kissed the inside of her hand a few times before looking back at her, his arms locking around her, pulling her into a tight embrace.

Lifting his hand to her face, he brushed the backs of his fingers down her cheek. "You're the greatest thing that ever happened to me."

Elena returned his faint smile and then said in a matching tone, low, earnest, full of love. "You're the greatest thing that ever happened to me too. Do you know why?" She asked, holding his face in the palms of her hands, her fingertips grazing his skin.

"Is that a tricky question?" Damon asked, sliding his hands underneath Elena's dress, a lop-sided smile flitting across his face.

Elena laughed under his breath, pulling his face closer to hers. "Because loving you has made me the person that I always wanted to be." She smiled at the startled expression that replaced the smile on Damon's face. "Brave, strong, happy," she said, pressing a soft kiss to his lips after each word.

"And you made me see the light," Damon said quietly, mirroring her gesture and cupping the sides of Elena's face with his hands. "Showed me the way out of darkness."

Elena smiled, brushing her lips across his over and over again. "And I promise you," she whispered, their foreheads touching. "It will never be dark again."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Ah, there you are," Liz said with a bright smile, walking into the living room where Miranda and Grayson were sitting by the fireplace.

"Liz!" Miranda jumped to her feet to hug her. "Maybe today we'll finally have time to catch up", she said with a smile that Liz returned.

"That was definitely my plan."

"Am I invited?" Grayson asked rising to his feet as well.

Liz and Miranda exchanged exaggeratedly reluctant looks.

"I thought you were in for some brother bonding today?" Miranda said, stifling a smile while reaching for her purse.

Grayson nodded. "Exactly."

"I'm sorry, but we're in an urgent and overdue need of a girls' night or rather day and night out." Miranda shrugged and then both her and Liz laughed.

"Yes, I was expecting this kind of answer but thought I'd try anyway," Grayson said in an unenthusiastic voice and then laughed as well.

"Surely it's not going to be that bad," Liz offered with a smile.

"Well, I guess there are worse ways of spending one's day than listening to your brother rant about your son-in-law."

Miranda snorted under her breath. "One of these days he's going to get over it. But speaking of. I've been told you and Damon are really good friends," she said with a smile, turning to Liz. "So I have every intention of taking advantage of that and gaining some additional insight."

"Sounds good to me," Grayson said.

The three of them exchanged smiles.

"We've all been to hell and back, and you're probably yet to hear some stories from the past, but... He's a good kid," Liz said in a sincere, reassuring voice, looking between Miranda and Grayson. "And he loves Elena with all his heart."

Miranda nodded and gave Liz a warm smile.

"Believe it or not, that's actually one of John's problems with the situation. No, wait." Grayson paused and then corrected himself. "I think his problem was that Elena was too much in love. Either way, do you think he'll notice I'll be reading the news on my phone while he'll be talking?"

"Well, if you're going to read anything, I suggest you focus on real estate," Miranda said with a small sigh. "Since our house went up in flames and all."

Liz shifted her eyes between them. "You don't know," she said with a cautious smile, drawing their attention.

Miranda tilted her head to the side. "Don't know what?"

Liz smiled. "The full results of my future son-in-law's making amends tour."

Miranda and Grayson exchanged puzzled looks, but before they had a chance to react to that, someone walked into the room, making them all look toward the door.

"Making amends tour. Yes, coincidentally, I think that's the expression I was looking for."

Miranda and Liz seemed completely caught off guard, but after a brief moment of just staring at the guest in amazement, they both grinned and rushed toward her.

"Abby!"

xxxdelenaxxx

"And that must be the philosopher's stone," Isobel stated matter-of-factly, leaning against the door frame.

Shane laughed, turning away from the table and walking toward her with a small box in his hand. "Actually, these are the wedding rings. Would you believe I was entrusted with them?"

"I would," Isobel answered easily. "Caroline did mention she was running short on errand people."

Shane smiled again and Isobel smiled back. For a few moments they were just looking at each other, before Isobel spoke again.

"Can I ask you something?"

"If it's something Damon hasn't asked yet."

Isobel laughed briefly, biting her lip.

"I have to say, I'm flattered that despite the fact that I spent the last several years all alone on a remote island, everyone seems to think I was still somehow the master mind behind the spell to obliterate magic."

Isobel narrowed her eyes at him. "No, that's not it. That's not what Damon thinks. He just thinks that this kind of spell could have some kind of a loophole or side effects you may know of but choose not to share with us."

"And what do you think?" Shane asked, holding her gaze, a small smile flickering across his face.

"Well," Isobel pushed herself away from the door frame and walked a few more steps inside the room, speaking with her back to Shane. "I was 15 when I gave birth to my daughter, abandoned her out of fear, got a university degree, married the nicest guy out of love, left him out of curiosity, died as a human, became a vampire, died again, came back to life, and most recently spent a day picking a dress for my daughter's bachelorette party." Isobel turned around, a smile that Shane could only describe as complicated flitting across her mouth. "I guess what I think is that anything is possible."

Shane nodded slowly, giving her a warm smile. "I agree with that," he said, walking up toward her, stopping near the table with a plant set in a basket on it. "But all I can tell you is that I don't _know_ anything more than what I let on, Isobel, however..." He raised his hand and lightly caught a piece of a dry leaf between his fingers. "If years of research and world travel taught me anything, is that we can never truly erase what we did not create. Love, pain, faith. Whatever we are able to feel, is essentially indestructible." Slowly withdrawing his hand, he watched Isobel's eyes drift to the leaf, now all healed and immaculately green. "Magic is like love. You _can_ annihilate it, but..." He smiled. "It's always capable of growing right back on."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Ugh, _Elena_ , tell me you're not in bed with Damon right now!" Caroline shouted into the phone and then quickened her steps when people in the street started giving her odd looks.

"OK," Elena chirped, snuggling closer to Damon, his cheek resting on top of her head, his arms wrapped around her. "Any specific tone of voice in which you want me to say it?"

Caroline groaned. "I did give you the list of things we were supposed to do today, didn't I? Disappearing on your wedding planner three days before your wedding is not exactly the most rational thing to do, is it?"

"I don't know why you assume we were trying to be rational?" Damon said, loud enough for Caroline to hear.

Elena giggled.

Caroline squeezed her eyes shut. "Fine. If you'll have to dance for nine hours in the shoes your mother-in-law picked for you, you'll only have yourself to blame."

Elena opened her mouth to reply, but Caroline had already ended the call.

"I think she's a little mad," Elena said, putting away her phone and turning to Damon, pretending to look worried for a second before her eyes lit up and she smiled again. "So where were we?" She murmured under her breath, leaning down to trace open-mouthed kisses across his chest.

Damon smiled and after pulling Elena's lips to his for a scorching kiss, he rolled them over, lowered his lips to her cheek, kissed his way to her ear and whispered. "Somewhere here."

xxxdelenaxxx

"So why are we leaving at 4am again?" Jeremy asked once he, Damon, Stefan, Enzo, Alaric and Desmond were all in the car.

Damon looked at him over his shoulder and flashed him an artificial smile while Stefan explained.

"We're trying to avoid having Klaus invite himself to join us."

"Trying to avoid," Damon repeated. "That's the way to inspire confidence. Thank you, brother."

Stefan shrugged.

"Well, let's hope he's occupied otherwise and just won't notice," Enzo said, starting the engine.

Stefan snorted humorlessly. "Is he going to be doing that for the whole time? Because this may get annoying very quickly."

Damon threw out his arms a little to signify the lack of answer to that question.

Enzo gasped. "Is that a threat?" He asked in a serious voice and then smirked.

"They don't like each other very much," Jeremy explained, giving Desmond a smile.

"Yeah, he killed me," Enzo said, glancing at Stefan in the rear-view mirror.

Alaric laughed briefly. "Really? We're doing that?"

"No, we were supposed to do that later," Jeremy said matter-of-factly.

"Do what?" Damon asked, glancing over his shoulder at them.

"Shots," Jeremy clarified. "And the 'never have I ever been killed by' game."

Alaric chuckled. "I have a feeling I'm going to get very drunk tonight."

"Aren't you all supposed to be nice to me today?" Damon asked with a grimace.

"No, not really," Alaric deadpanned.

Jeremy and Stefan chuckled.

"Well, I think we can safely leave the being nice to you part to Elena," Enzo said with a smirk. Jeremy hit him on the head with his backpack. "Ouch."

"OK." Damon straightened up in his seat. "So since this is a rather weird cross-generation bachelor field trip party that happens to include people with different levels of sense of humor, different sensibility levels, and different relationships to one another, I suggest you revise your choice of punch lines," Damon said, giving Enzo a look.

"Yeah, I'm sure most people in this car would appreciate it," Jeremy muttered, glaring daggers at the back of Enzo's head.

Enzo shrugged. "Fine. I meant no harm. I'm actually quite genuinely a fan."

"Yes, since you mentioned that," Damon interrupted him. "Why are you so obsessed with Elena and I? Apparently, Elena's parents know a disturbingly detailed history of our relationship courtesy of... you. What's that all about?"

A smile flitted across Enzo's face before he offhandedly admitted. "I simply find it inspiring." He paused and then added. "If someone like Elena could fall in love with someone like you, then anything and everything is possible."

Damon glanced over his shoulder at Jeremy, Alaric and Stefan who seemed to unequivocally find the comment amusing.

"Ha ha," Damon said flatly, his gaze stopping at Desmond who was yet to join in the conversation. "I hope this is the 'what am I doing here' kind of silence, and not the 'I agree with everything they say' kind.

Desmond smiled. "More of the 'I can't believe I'm really headed to a bachelor party with my son' kind," he said in a low, sincere voice.

Damon smiled briefly and then looked toward the window when Enzo took an unexpected turn. "Why are we going this way?"

"We're picking up Matt," Jeremy retorted, making everyone laugh again.

"Hilarious," Damon said, squinting, and then frowned at the sound that reverberated in the car.

Jeremy pulled a ringing phone out of his pocket.

"Is that my phone?" Damon asked in an exaggeratedly incredulous tone, turning to him.

"There will be no reception where we're going anyway," Jeremy said, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "Damon's phone," he said, taking the call and leaning to the side, so Damon couldn't snatch the phone out of his hand. "Seriously, Elena? You don't have anything better to do at 4am?" Jeremy shook his head with a snort and handed the phone to Damon.

"So how far is it?" Alaric asked, glancing out of the window, the sky slowly brightening into a blueish dawn.

"About an hour from here," Desmond replied and was about to say something more, but trailed off, his attention drawn to what Damon was saying on the phone.

"No, I put the pepper spray in your purse, because you invited my mother to your bachelorette party."

"He is kidding," Jeremy said with a small smile, noticing the tentatively worried expression on Desmond's face.

"No, he is not, but Elena wouldn't use it," Alaric clarified.

"Caroline would," Stefan pointed out from the back.

Enzo snorted under his breath. "I can see why she picked Klaus over you. So judgy."

"Why is he on this trip again?" Stefan asked with an exaggeratedly puzzled frown, leaning forward and glancing between Alaric, Jeremy and Desmond who were sitting in front of him.

"I was going to ask the same question. You're not even Damon's real family," Enzo said with a grimace.

Stefan snorted. "That was almost funny."

"Not as funny as Caroline dumping you," Enzo replied smilingly.

Stefan rolled his eyes. "Caroline did not dump me. We came to the mutual agreement that we work better as friends. And I don't know why I even feel the need to explain that to you," he added in a low voice.

"Was it before or after you lied to her?" Enzo asked, glancing at him in the mirror.

"What?" Stefan asked, confused.

"You told her you've never been to Portland."

Stefan shook his head with a frown. "I told her I've never been to Portland, because I've never been to Portland. I'm sorry, were you eavesdropping on us?" He shot Enzo an annoyed look, before his gaze shifted to Alaric who suddenly grew pensive. "What?"

"Wasn't Kai from Portland?" Jeremy offered and Stefan squeezed his eyes shut. "I completely forgot about that trip."

"I didn't," Alaric said in a low voice.

"OK, new party rule," Jeremy said, shooting Enzo an angry look. "No bringing back sad memories."

"I _know_ ," Damon said with a crooked smile and in a voice that clearly indicated he wasn't paying attention to what was happening in the car at all. "Hey!" He exclaimed when Enzo snatched the phone out of his hand and after wishing Elena a 'very good day', threw it back to Jeremy who put it away.

"And that is why we took your phone in the first place," Enzo explained with a smile, turning up the volume on the radio to the maximum and ignoring everyone screaming at him to turn it down.

xxxdelenaxxx

"You don't look impressed," Caroline said in an utterly serious tone, her forehead wrinkling, her eyes fixed on Elena.

"No, no, I am impressed," Elena reassured her immediately, glancing at Jenna and Sarah who were trying not to laugh while Miranda, Isobel and Lily were looking around the restaurant which looked very festive, all decorated with white flowers, white ribbons and hundreds of white balloons. "We have the Mystic Grill all for ourselves and you couldn't even compel anyone to make that happen," she added, exchanging a smile with Bonnie. "I _am_ impressed."

"Well, Bonnie suggested that a loud, crowded party is not the best place for a pregnant woman to be, so I decided to do something... quieter. Although by quieter I didn't mean completely quiet," Caroline added, squinting. She put her hands on her hips and looked around the room. "Why isn't there any music on?" She said with a frown before marching off to intervene. "Why do I always have to do everything myself!"

"We should definitely do a toast," Elena said, taking a place at the head of the table. "Bonnie might've just discovered the only way to make Caroline keep a party small."

Miranda and Jenna smiled, putting their purses next to Isobel's on a shelf nearby.

"Who is the owner of this place now anyway?" Elena asked, looking around the grill with a small smile at the many memories connected with this place.

" _Elena. I took away his suffering."_

" _What eye-thing?"_

" _You need to stop doing that. Assuming that I'll play the good guy because it's you who's asking."_

" _Just drink."_

The memory of them riding the camaro into the building was interrupted by Caroline shook Elena out of her reverie by placing something over her head.

Elena squeezed her eyes shut. I hope it just says 'bride-to-be'," she said with a laugh, giving Bonnie a hopeful look.

"Nope," Caroline replied, sliding onto the seat next to Sarah. "It says 'the boss'," she added, before Elena attempted to take the crown off her head to look at it.

Elena glanced at Miranda who nodded, confirming Caroline's words. "OK," she said, a little confused.

"Can I say it?" Jenna offered, having finished pouring everyone a drink.

"Go for it," Bonnie said with a smile, helping herself to a cupcake, and then passing the plate to Isobel and Lily.

"What is it?" Elena asked, looking around the table with growing curiosity.

"Do you know where we are right now?" Jenna asked, glancing around.

"In the Mystic Grill," Elena replied cautiously, but Jenna shook her hand indicating that it wasn't the definition she was looking for. "In the place... Damon and I blew up?" Elena tried and even though everyone laughed it still didn't seem to be the phrase Jenna was trying to make her guess. "I know. All the magic somehow got sucked into this building and now this is the only magical place in the whole entire world."

"Gee, I can tell you didn't get much sleep last night," Caroline stated in a non-nonsense voice.

"Caroline!" Bonnie widened her eyes at her, indicating Miranda, Isobel and Lily with a meaningful tilt of her hand.

"In my world having sex is less shocking than trying to kill someone but whatever," Caroline retorted, unfazed.

Bonnie hid her face in her hands.

"Caroline," Elena gave her almost a pleading look.

"No, Caroline is right," Lily cut in, a humorless smile flitting across her face. "I don't think I can apologize enough for-"

"It's fine," Elena interrupted her with a genuine smile. "We've dealt with apologies already. No more apologies." She reached for her glass of sparkling water. "It's a new beginning for all of us."

"I didn't finish what I was saying," Jenna pointed out, waving her hand at Elena.

"That's right," Caroline agreed, taking a sip of her drink and leaning back in her seat with a satisfied smile on her face.

Elena narrowed her eyes at her. "What is going on?" She asked, looking between everyone with her eyes narrowed.

"This is your place," Jenna said, extending her arms, gesturing around the Mystic Grill.

Elena blinked. "What?"

"We bought it for you," Caroline said and then squeezed her eyes shut for a second before clarifying with a small smile. "Well, Klaus bought it, but it was our idea," she said, glancing at Bonnie who smiled as well.

"How rich exactly is that Klaus guy anyway?" Sarah asked with a comedic frown.

Bonnie snorted. "You mean how rich he used to be. At the rate he's going lately, I think by the time Caroline marries him he will be _broke_."

Everyone chuckled.

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Basically, this is your wedding gift," she said, turning back to Elena who was staring at her, stunned.

"We know you were thinking about going to New York..." Isobel started.

"But we figured that with the baby on the way, you might consider sticking around for a couple of more years," Bonnie continued with a small smile.

"Of course if you still want to move right away, we'll just move with you, to be closer to where you'll be," Miranda said in a reassuring voice. "Even though Klaus got us that really pretty house here, three blocks from our old house," she added in a lower tone, causing Elena to laugh again.

"This way you could just see if running a place like this is really what you'd like to do in New York," Caroline said with a grin. "This could be your... trial restaurant!"

"And we'd all be happy to help, so you'd have no problems reconciling all the responsibilities... including studying..." Miranda added in an artificially casual voice.

"I don't know how they did that, but you've apparently been already admitted to Duke," Jenna said, chuckling under his breath at the mockingly sheepish expression on Miranda's face. "And I'm yet to graduate."

"You probably don't want to know the details of that," Isobel said in an ominous voice, eliciting short bursts of laughter from everyone.

Elena's eyes traveled from one person to another in happy disbelief. "You're amazing. Thank you."

"And by 'you' Jenna meant you and Damon," Bonnie clarified.

"And he won't be able to compel himself a single term paper," Caroline said in a dreamy voice and then raising a glass of champagne added joyfully. "I love karma."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Now you can open your eyes," Caroline said, taking a few steps back and glancing at Bonnie who nodded in approval.

Hope kept jumping up and down, waiting impatiently for Elena's reaction.

Slowly, Elena opened her eyes and almost gasped at the sight in the mirror. "Caroline, this dress is beautiful," she said in amazement, lightly touching the layers upon layers of snow white lace flaring wider toward the bottom, making the delicate fabric of the bodice, the bateau neckline and the cathedral train look even more perfect than Elena could ever imagine it to be.

"You look like a princess!" Hope said happily.

"I'm so happy you like it," Caroline said excitedly, but then her happy smile turned into a dead-serious expression. "Now take it off. We have to make sure nothing happens to it before tomorrow."

Elena nodded quickly, exchanging amused smiles with Bonnie and Hope.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Of all the places where I would _not_ look for you."

Damon smiled and turned around at the sound of Stefan's voice.

"When Elena told me where you were I thought she was joking," Stefan added, stopping next to Damon, and taking a longer look at the grave in front of them. "What are you doing here?" He gave Damon a genuinely curious look.

Damon glanced at the washed-out letters of Giuseppe Salvatore's name and shrugged. "Just contemplating the relativity of things."

Stefan acknowledged the answer with a mildly amused grunt. "And more specifically?"

Damon smiled weakly. "When Elena and I went back in time, for a second there I thought..." He trailed off, but Stefan just looked at him, patiently waiting for him to continue. "I realized, that things could've been different." He looked at Stefan who gave him a questioning look. "He was a horrible man," Damon said, glancing at the grave, "but... I've never exactly done anything to help him be less horrible, you know?"

Returning his faint smile, Stefan nodded, beginning to understand. "Well, I haven't either. Or maybe," he continued after a pause, "it was just Elena being there that was making you look at everything differently."

"That's my point, Stefan." Damon frowned, his voice low and thoughtful. "It's much more difficult to be the person you want to be if you're alone." For a few moments they were both standing in silence, looking at the tombstone, before Damon turned around, a humorless snort flitting across his face. "And you know what else I realized? As twisted as it is, he never left us." Damon tilted his head to the side, looking at Stefan who was looking back at him, pondering his words. "He shot us dead, but... he's the only one that never abandoned us."

"You're right," Stefan said pensively after a moment of silence. "It's a really twisted conclusion to arrive at. You clearly haven't recovered from the influence of your bachelor party yet."

They both laughed.

"Come on, let's get back to the house," Stefan said, patting Damon on the shoulder.

Damon grimaced, groaning a little under his breath. "I'm actually trying to postpone it."

"Postpone what?" Stefan asked, confused.

"Barbie of Swan Lake, Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses and Barbie and the Secret Door. Elena counted that if I want to make it in time for the contest I have to watch 3 movies a day," Damon muttered in an utterly miserable and depressed voice.

Stefan clenched his jaw, trying very hard to keep a straight face. "What about the books?" He asked matter-of-factly.

Damon narrowed his eyes at him. "Is everyone else enjoying it as much as you do?"

Stefan smiled. "More!"

xxxdelenaxxx

"You can't see me!" Elena exclaimed with a hint of panic in her voice, leaning against the door. "I'm already dressed!"

"Elena," Damon started in an utterly serious voice, "I want you to know that I love you even when you're not naked," he said, leaning against the other side of the closed door.

Elena laughed. "Are you dressed?" She asked, squinting.

"Twenty-five tuxedos later, yes, I finally am," Damon said, looking himself over before resting the side of his head against the door with a smile. "And my only regret is not recording Caroline telling me to take my clothes off twenty-four times, so I'd have something to send to Klaus in response to his Barbie trivia e-mails."

With a laugh, Elena touched the door where she was certain Damon's face was. "I'll see you in one hour, OK?" She said softly.

"OK," Damon replied in a matching tone and they both smiled imagining each other smile.

xxxdelenaxxx

"Is God coming too?" Klaus asked, approaching Caroline whom he'd been watching for a moment with her head tuned upwards looking at the sky with a very anxious expression on her face.

Caroline's eyes darted to him. "Of course He is. We've officially resolved the evil supernatural creatures issue on the entire planet earth, I say we deserve some recognition." She smiled and then sighed. "I'm checking for the rain."

"Wouldn't a tent be a good idea?" Clasping his hands behind his back, Klaus surveyed rows of beautifully decorated chairs before returning his gaze to Caroline.

"I was thinking about it, but Lizzy, Jarka, Sandra and Melissa, Sarah's friends who will be taking pictures said it'd ruin the light, so I decided to go with the open skyline and really pretty umbrellas that everyone can pick up as soon as it starts to rain." She looked up again before her eyes widened at the sound of incoming cars. "Let's go."

xxxdelenaxxx

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the sight of God to join this man, and this woman in holy matrimony."

Damon and Elena squeezed each other's hands at the same time and smiled, the wind making the train of Elena's dress rise and fall, the white fabric billowing lightly in the air, making her look even more like an angel, Damon thought, brushing the backs of her hands with his thumbs, his eyes boring into hers.

"Marriage is a sacred union between husband and wife and shall remain unbroken."

Elena smiled, wishing that she could make this moment last forever, that she could live forever in this perfect moment in time. And she smiled again at the thought that she will, that this moment will last, it will stretch over days and years to come, all of them exuberant, filled with love, all of them bright until the day they die, after their long, happy human life together.

"With the power vested in me by God and the state of Virginia I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Damon cupped Elena's face in his hands, his lips inching closer to hers, but then he paused at the sound of a thunder above.

They looked at each and when drops of rain started falling over them they looked up, smiling, grinning, and when they looked at each other again the torrents of rain grew quiet, their heartbeats the only sound reverberating in their ears when they kissed.

xxxdelenaxxx

Laughing, Damon and Elena finally got off the dancing floor and sat down along with everyone else, their eyes shifting to Jeremy and Bonnie who were standing at one of the tables in the middle, waiting for everyone else to sit down as well.

"Since we know how much everyone loves these kind of speeches, we decided to do something else," Bonnie said with a mysterious smile, tilting her head to Jeremy.

"Wedding speeches usually tell everyone what they already know," Jeremy said, looking between Damon and Elena, "so we thought that we'd do a little twist on it, and tell you the things you don't know instead."

Everyone shared questioning, intrigued looks. Elena leaned her cheek against Damon who smiled, intertwining his fingers with hers.

"Elena," Bonnie started with a smile, "when we were in the prison world together, I asked Damon what would be the first thing he'd do if we ever got out. He said that the first thing he'd do would be telling you how much he loves you."

Elena drew a breath and smiled, glancing at Damon while keeping her cheek pressed to his.

"Damon," Jeremy spoke, a faint smile flickering across his face. "Alaric didn't alter Elena's memories just because she was sad. He did it because she spent four months drugging herself with magical herbs of unknown origin to hallucinate you."

Damon turned his head to widen his eyes at Elena who shrugged with a small smile, shooting Jeremy a look.

"We didn't say it was going to be more fun than regular speeches," Bonnie said and all the wedding guests laughed.

"Elena, when Kol compelled Damon to kill me and he caught up with me in forest, he... wanted me to kill him, so he wouldn't kill me," Jeremy said, looking at Elena who blinked in surprise.

"Damon, when you were wandering around the streets in fever after the werewolf bite, Elena broke the window at the police station with an antique chair to get to you," Bonnie said with a smile.

"I didn't know it was antique," Elena said with a laugh, glancing at Damon after he pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"Before Elena was a vampire," Bonnie continued, "Matt asked her once what was the deal with you and she said that... you sneaked up on her and she just couldn't shake you."

Damon brought Elena's hand to his lips and kissed it. She smiled at him.

"After Damon killed me, I made myself a stake and went to kill him," Jeremy laughed briefly under his breath, "but we spent an entire night talking about our dads instead."

"When you broke up and you told Elena you didn't want to even see her face ever again, there was not a single person in town she did _not_ tell about this. She just couldn't process it at all," Bonnie said flatly, prompting another series of laughs.

The list went on for some time yet, every incident meeting with happy or bittersweet smiles, tears of joy, sadness or relief. Once Bonnie and Jeremy finished, the sound of a silver spoon lightly hitting the glass turned everyone's attention to Stefan who rose to his feet.

"I wasn't aware there would be no regular speeches and I've actually prepared mine, so... I'm not letting it go to waste."

Damon and Elena smiled at him. All the conversations stopped and everyone looked at Stefan.

"This... is my story," Stefan began, a faint smile flitting across his lips. "That was the first sentence in my first diary. And it echoed through all of the now thankfully charred volumes." He glanced at Rebekah who stifled a smile. "For a very long time that was what I believed. That was what made certain things unexplainable, impossible. That was the reason for bafflement, shock, disappointment, confusion. Don't we all have moments when we ask why something happened to us? Every one of us is the main character of our own story. But there is also something else. Something I understood much later, late, but not too late. Something that endows with meaning all those moments that wouldn't have had it otherwise. It's not just my story. It's ours. Because on top of playing the leading role in our story we also play parts in other people's stories. In those other stories we're supporting characters, guest stars, extras. We're heroes, villains, passers-by. And those other stories are equally important. Sometimes," he smiled, his gaze stopping at Damon and Elena, "they are even more important, because... they are the stories of the people we love."

xxxdelenaxxx

Tires screeching, Damon jumped out of the car, leaving the keys in the car and rushing into the hospital building, across the corridors and stairs and at last the sight of familiar faces reassured him that he was in the right wing.

"Where is she?" He gasped, continuing to walk on before anyone had a chance to answer him.

"Damon!" Bonnie tried to stop him from barging in, but then just rolled her eyes and turned to Stefan who smiled and waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "I'll go get those coffees," he said, glancing at Grayson and Miranda who nodded smilingly.

"This is the dad, I presume," the nurse said, shaking her head in amusement at how shaken Damon looked upon entering the room and stopping abruptly in his tracks at the sight. "My name's Carol. Please let me know if you'd need anything and don't stay here for too long today. They both need to get some sleep," she added, glancing at Elena and the baby with a smile before leaving the room.

"Hey you," Elena called out to him, tilting her head to the side.

With her eyes shining from exhaustion and joy, a bright smile on her face and her hair in disarray Damon was certain she'd never looked happier and more beautiful.

"Hey you," he replied, forcing his legs to move as he stumbled slowly toward the bed where Elena was sitting up with a bundle in her arms. "Want to meet someone?"

When Damon got close enough, he could see the baby's face, tiny fingers and eyes bright with curiosity that seemed to focus on his face when he slowly lowered himself on a chair to sit next to Elena.

The baby gurgled in delight, the little boy's eyes shifting back and forth from Elena to Damon, making them both laugh.

"I love you," Damon whispered, carefully draping his arm over Elena's shoulders.

She looked at him with a smile. "I love you."

They kissed and then looked at the baby again.

"And we love you," Elena said, very lightly touching the baby's tiny hand with one of her fingertips.

Damon smiled, leaning his head against Elena's.

"Hello, son."


	37. Chapter 37

A/N: Welcome at Story's End! It's been 13 years since the first _Pirates of the Caribbean_ movie, so I'm afraid that the reason behind this greeting's becoming obsolete, but oh well ;)

It's also been more than 7 years since the beginning of _The Vampire Diaries_ and it feels strange to think that in several weeks the series will be over. I think in my first A/N for this fic I said I wouldn't watch S7. Well, I changed my mind. After almost two years of wallowing in sadness I decided that after so many years of frustrating and annoying at times, but still predominantly beautiful and amazing storytelling I owe the show a bit of trust.

So I'm choosing to believe that the series will give Damon and Elena the finale their story deserves. I'm choosing to believe that the show will end with Damon and Elena finding their way back to each other. As always.

As for my DE stories... I won't be making any grand announcements that this is my last fan fiction ever, but... it quite possibly is. Solely due to the lack of time, might I add. Because I'll always love TVD, Damon & Elena, and all of you, the amazing people that I've met thanks to this wonderful site :) You kind of just changed my life ;)

And now onto the...

 **Thank You** Note

I would like to thank **so so so so so so so much**

AJay 1208, Ana4267, Angelpete87, Ani, Anna Lane, Beasassy, Bernadette1943, Bonnie and Clyde fan 9-22-11, Cary Kate, Celia, Courtney, dearelena, Delenadiva, DelenaIsBatman, delenaveforever, Destrark, dldeibler, Eleid, Elmira Gulch, EsCaDa-Mako, Evelyn Ankers, Finley Jean, Flowersprincess16, Freedom to Rarity, Hana, harmonylove050, Helene08, His Gem, IceTear1, ldavis27, itwillalwaysbedamon, jairem, kat st james, kimminnee, kittyfajitas, Leah, legend402, LGZSPECCY, Lizzy Salvatore-Cooper-Grey, lucy willow, mackenzie6426, Mallory J, ManaliA, melisareynolds12, Mina, minisum, .Sexy, Nejlla, nicolebaka, NinasGirlxo, PattyCake17, raspberry5698, sahlamari, , ScarletRose, scarlett2112, Seddielover945, Sey77, Shadowdancer456, sloksingh45, StarfireKTreva801, stilesxandlydia, SweetyK, . , TheRoadtoHell666, thisdarkpassenger, This Is My Escape, TruffleShuffle21, Tvd2014, TVDTVDTVD, Whitney1278, widowelena, Willofthewisp, xELinneax, ZuzusPetals1985, and all the Guest reviewers

for your amazing, beautiful, inspiring reviews that always made me smile, made me happy, carried me through sad moments, gave me hope when I needed it :)

May 2017 bring you everything you're wishing for!

Happy Damon & Elena's reunion year! :)

*hugs*

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries belongs to L.J. Smith & CW. I own Elena's dream world, a restaurant in the purgatory world, Hope's sand molds, Lily's tea cups, the anti-love spell, the aging spell, the time travel spell (I could probably write a full-length grimoire lol), the golden threat, whatever herbs Shane was eating to survive on that island for so long, Desmond, Elena's wedding dress, Damon and Elena's new house, Klaus' bank accounts, Denver, Atlanta, and the person whose diary entry you're about to read ;)

 **Epilogue**

 _Hello world! I mean, Dear Diary,_

 _Grandma Miranda says writing a diary is fun, so I decided to give it a try. My Mom also had a diary, but she accidentally burned it... along with her house. Well, it wasn't really an accident. It happened when my Mom was helping Uncle Jeremy fake his death. It's a long story._

 _I'm not sure what is the best way to start a diary, so I guess in this first entry I'll just write about my family. I have the best Mom, the best Dad, the best sister and the best brother in the whole entire world! Although don't tell my sister and my brother I said that, because I like fighting with them too, so I have to keep pretending I don't like them all that much ha ha_

 _My Mom's a surgeon, my Dad's a cardiologist, my brother's in college, my sister's in high school, and I'm in 4_ _th_ _grade. We also have a puppy whose name's Vampire. He's really cute and likes running around like crazy. When we take him for walks, we often have to chase after him. You can imagine how hilarious it is when we have to call after him in public. People scatter! ha ha Especially here in Mystic Falls, for some reason. We also have a cat whose name's The Cure. I think our cat's named after a music band, but I don't really know any of their songs. It was Dad who came up with both names. He also wanted to name my sister Porch! It's a good thing Mom didn't let him. Although my brother and I always call my sister that anyway when we want to annoy her._

 _We live in Mystic Falls. We used to live in New York, but we moved back to Virginia five years ago. My Mom and my Dad and my brother and my sister were all born here. I was born in South Carolina where Grandma Isobel and Grandpa Shane live. My brother says I ruined everyone's vacation, because I was supposed to be born 3 weeks later. I don't really care, because it's pretty cool to be the only person born somewhere else than everyone else in your family. Grandma Isobel and Grandpa Shane are both university professors and they spend a lot of time reading, writing, and traveling. I think they've been everywhere!_

 _I want to travel the world one day too, but for now I really like just living here in Mystic Falls. My Mom and Dad own a restaurant here! When they moved to New York, Grandpa John was taking care of it. Grandpa John is single and Dad says the whole point of leaving him a restaurant was so he could be meeting lots of people on a daily basis and meet someone who would want to marry him, but apparently they don't serve that much alcohol in that restaurant. I mean, I don't know what this has to do with anything, but that's what Dad said._

 _I don't remember living in New York much anyway. My Mom told me that she and Dad moved to New York two years after my sister was born. They bought a bar and were living in an apartment right above it! Both my Mom and Dad were in residency programs at that time, so they didn't have much time for the bar. They say it was all crazy and hectic, but fun too. Uncle Elijah and Aunt Hayley were helping with the bar, since they were living three streets away. Uncle Elijah was babysitting my brother and sister from time to time too, until he once agreed to play hide and seek with Denver and Atlanta. Let me tell you. That couldn't possibly go well. I know that and I'm 10, and Uncle Elijah must be at least 40 or something. Once when Mom and Dad came back from their anniversary dinner after several hours it was past midnight and... Uncle Elijah was still looking for Denver and Atlanta! And so was the New York Police Department! ha ha Uncle Elijah nearly had a heart attack. But fortunately Dad found Denver and Atlanta within 5 minutes. They were in a closet of all places. They had crayons with them and the walls inside the closet were all covered in all the words they knew how to spell (my brother was 7 and my sister 4 then). Uncle Stefan says making lists of things makes them easier to remember. Guess they wanted to put that advice into practice._

 _Both my Mom and Dad graduated from medical school, but Grandpa Grayson says it took him years of psychological torture to convince them to at last open a family practice in Mystic Falls. It was a small office at first, but it became so popular that Mom and Dad had to rent a bigger place and hire more people!_

 _Mom and Dad are so funny. Once when they went to a parent-teacher conference at Denver's school they got in trouble and they landed in the Principal's office! Even Denver has never landed in the Principal's office. I don't know exactly what Mom and Dad did... I think they broke something in the chemistry lab._

 _My brother Denver is studying medicine at the same university where Great Aunt Sheila was teaching. Uncle Alaric was teaching there too for some time until he got fired for forging a sick leave form. The funny thing is, he didn't forge it. It's just that Dad gave him a fake one to begin with ha ha It was a prank, but Uncle Alaric didn't think it was funny and got mad at Dad. He came over to talk, but Dad told him to just forget about it. I'm not sure what was so funny about that response, but apparently it was hilarious, because even Mom laughed. But for some reason that made Uncle Alaric even more mad. Uncle Alaric gets mad quite often, but he always gets over it, eventually._

 _He and Dad used to participate in car races. It was fun seeing them race! We used to go all together. Races were on Saturdays, but we'd usually skip school on Friday (yay!) and drive to another town stay there for an entire weekend. Mom says road trips are our family's tradition. She and Dad went on road trips all the time when they were dating. Actually, that's where my sister's name comes from! Mom and Dad went on their first road trip to Atlanta. And they kissed, I mean, really kissed for the first time in Denver. I'm not sure what's the difference between kissing and really kissing, but Atlanta says there's a difference._

 _My sister Atlanta won Miss Mystic Falls last year! Denver says she won, because she shocked the jury by wearing a dress, but I think she won, because she danced really well. My sister is very pretty. She has long, black hair and blue eyes, but she isn't really into all the nails and make-up stuff. Denver says she's only pretending to be a tomboy to be free of teenage drama. Atlanta likes helping Uncle Stefan in his car repair shop instead. Miss Tanner says that's not a good hobby for a girl. When she told Atlanta that, Atlanta told her that apparently geography isn't a good hobby for a girl either, if Miss Tanner's knowledge of the subject is any indication. I think Atlanta read all of the books we have in the house. Mom and Dad say that's the only reason she can get away with all the things she says at school._

 _I go to school with my cousins Lexi and Henrik. They are twins and they are two years older than me. They are Uncle Stefan and Aunt Rebekah's children. We live only ten minutes away from each other!_

 _Oh I have to tell you this. In March we'll all be flying to France! Our cousin Hope has her first vernisage in Paris! Hope's graduated from the best art school in Europe. I can't remember the name of the school, but Uncle Klaus says it's the best one, and that everyone he's ever met would confirm it._

 _Last year we all went to Hope's wedding. In Rome! Uncle Klaus bought plane tickets for everyone! Uncle Klaus and Aunt Caroline are very rich. They own 3 art galleries in Europe and an island in the Caribbean! They're running a fashion resort there together with their son, our other cousin Claude. The fashion resort is a place where you go on vacation and you can also attend fashion events and design your own clothes! It sounds really fun. I haven't been there yet, because there's also a casino there and Mom and Dad say it's not a place for kids. I don't think they know Denver went to a casino when he was 16. His ex-girlfriend's parents were working there and once they sneaked in and won a lot of coins. It was too bad they couldn't exchange them later for real money. Maybe then Denver could pay back his debt to the Tooth Fairy. Yep, you heard that right. My brother's indebted to the Tooth Fairy! Ha ha Here's how it happened. When he lost his first tooth, he found a $1 bill under his pillow, and started complaining about it, so the next time when he lost his tooth, he didn't find any money under his pillow, only a note saying that he's supposed to reimburse the Tooth Fairy for her traveling expenses, and until he does, she won't give him any more money at all. Told you my parents were funny._

 _And actually, there are many funny people in my family. For instance Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Enzo were married for two years, then they got divorced, and then they got married again! They have a daughter who is one year younger than Atlanta. They go to high school together. Aunt Bonnie has a flower shop and she's teaching me ikebana. Things she can do with flowers are pure magic! Last week there was a funeral in town and people bought a lot of flowers in Aunt Bonnie's shop. But all of these people were so sad. This is so sad that people die. When I grow up, I'm going to become a scientist and I'm going to find the cure for death. And then my family and everyone else is going to live forever!_

 _Uncle Enzo is a businessman, but I think he should get a job as a Santa Claus, because he brings the best Christmas presents. He used to always dress up as Santa Claus when I was little. I figured out it was him when one year Santa Claus arrived in his car instead of a sleigh. Come on._

 _Uncle Jeremy also brings great presents. It was actually Uncle Jeremy who gave us Vampire. Uncle Jeremy was in the army, but he got injured and during the time when he was in a hospital, he drew so many pictures that Mom convinced him to do something with them. He did an exhibition in our local gallery, but someone noticed his drawings and liked them so much he also went to have an exhibition in New York and his drawings got to be published in a book! He won three awards for them already. Aunt Sarah (Uncle Jeremy's wife) also won many awards. She's a photographer. She and Uncle Jeremy are traveling a lot, but we often talk on Skype. Last year Aunt Sarah and her Mom opened an online jewelery shop and they are often sending Mom, Atlanta and me really pretty necklaces and bracelets._

 _Denver is coming home from college this weekend and he's bringing home his new girlfriend. And on Sunday we'll all be going stargazing! I love looking at the stars. This is also one of our family's traditions._

 _It's almost seven, so I have to start on my homework. Today is Mom and Dad's wedding anniversary. They're going out and you wouldn't want to be me if I don't have my homework done before Grandma Lily comes over. But maybe Grandpa Desmond will come too, and then I could probably get away with not having my homework done on time. Last time when Grandma Lily and Grandpa Desmond came to visit, we watched the Barbie contest together! No, I don't play with Barbies anymore. I'm too old for that. But this is something different. When our cousin Hope was 5, she and Dad participated in a Barbie contest together! And they won! And the recording of that contest is so fun to watch ha ha We always laugh so much when we watch it._

 _Homework is probably one of my least favorite things to do, but it has to be done before I can do things I actually like, like reading, painting and rollerskating. Or sailing, but that I can't do in the house. Oh, and there is one more thing I like. Watching Mom and Dad dance in the rain. Atlanta, Denver and I used to sit on the windowsill in Denver's bedroom and watch them dance. Every time it started to rain at night, when they thought we were all asleep, they'd run outside, dance around our garden, laughing and kissing. Atlanta says she'll only marry someone who will be dancing with her in the rain like that. And Denver says that this memory of seeing Mom and Dad dance is something that we can always carry with us, and that whenever something sad happens, we can just close our eyes and remember those nights of sitting on the windowsill and watching them dance. That it's something that will always make us feel better about everything. I'm going to try that out if I'll ever feel sad._

 _So this is it. My first diary entry! I'll see you again tomorrow. Bye!_

 _Love,_

 _Delena_


End file.
